1in100

Eve Isley Saarinen was born the evening of Friday, December 12th  – 6 lbs, 9 oz, 20 inches… lots of beautiful dark hair.

At 2 days old, Eve was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. It’s a broad category.  Her biggest problem is a severely leaky mitral valve, which puts strain on the whole heart function, enlarging the heart and putting pressure and excess fluid on the respiratory system.  She was transported by Lifelink to the University of Minnesota NICU on the 14th.  Paul drove through the blizzard that night to be at her side, but since I had a c-section I could not be discharged until the next day.  Took a cab over there on the 15th and we hunkered down for the next 5 days.  The medications seemed to be working at first, but within a couple days her heart was continuing to get larger, her breathing more labored.  After an episode of SVT – which is basically super-fast heart arrhythmia, she was immediately transported to the U of M Children’s Hospital pediatric intensive care unit – closer to the full time cardiology staff and cardiac surgeon.

She was started on a new, stronger drug to alleviate some of the pressure and workload on her heart.  We were warned that her situation was precarious.  The surgeon and team spoke to us of a possible transplant (her heart had already been greatly damaged by her defect and the tachycardia).  Yet with all this, she has started to turn a corner and improve.

It is slow progress – and it’s hard to be patient.   We don’t know how long we’ll be here as the medicines do their work…though they seem to be stabilizing her.  We’ve told our parents to come now…want them to know her if God takes her from us now.  Just writing this is almost unbearable.  For now, we are only positive around her…so we cling to a tentative plan to get her bigger and stronger for a heart surgery at about 3 months old.

There are very sick children all around us here.  It’s the holiday season and there shouldn’t be any sick children.  Anywhere.  So we pray for all these babies and continue to be grateful for how well Eve has been doing.

Blessings to all of you in the new year – cherish your new arrivals.  They are the greatest gifts.  We’ll do our best to keep you posted (Paul’s Eve blog updates can be found at:  www.tweetandmeet.com)

Annamarie, Paul, Jack, Elle and baby Eve

2010, you have been good to us.  Our family thrived.  We celebrated.  1in100 made a difference.  Thank you for that.

But I wish you could have been better to others.

To the 11 families who had to say goodbye to their babies – EVERY SINGLE DAY of 2010 – because of heart defects that were beyond repair.

To the thousands of lives that were shattered because burying a child in a coffin the size of a shoe box is WRONG.

To the families that fell apart because their pain was too deep to bear.

To those that languished in hospital rooms, often for months at a time.

To physicians that tried, but sometimes failed to mend broken hearts.

A good friend just sent me a note this afternoon – hoping this for 2011:  that fewer patients die; fewer clinicians endure the traumatic impact; and more patients and physicians are brought closer together through adversity and success.

2011, I don’t know you yet, but I already aspire great things for you.  May you fulfill the best wishes and brightest hopes of those you touch.

This gorgeous little girl is Taryn Kennedy.  She was happy, healthy, growing until almost one month old.  Her parents didn’t see it coming, and she was lost to an undiagnosed heart defect – TAPVR – at 29 days old.  I stood next to her mom, Vi Kennedy (blessherheart.org), just two weeks ago at the national advisory committee meeting evaluating newborn screening for Critical Congenital Heart Defects.  She is eloquent and brave…and she is not alone.

I sent this via email to the members of our Minnesota pulse ox pilot team about 6 weeks ago.  Thought it was worth posting here.  I am amazed by the continuity and consistency of the data that comes in regarding newborn screening for CCHD.  I get that we have a bias…but the facts are simply becoming far to difficult to argue with.  As Dr. Martin put it to the national committee “these are not isolated incidents, babies are missed all the time…”   Feel free to add your comments or feedback – the armor gets stronger every day.  Here’s the email:

Wanted to share this with you.  They are the top 8 defects – in order of prevalence – that are the most often missed during routine newborn exam alone (these come from Dr. Hoffman’s recent paper and gathered study data).  Below that are some of the responses heart families posted on what their undiagnosed defects were…on our Facebook page alone, we got over 2 dozen responses in a matter of a few hours.  I may post again to see what additional feedback comes in.  Would be interested to hear if anything hear strikes you as unusual (other than an HLHS baby going undiagnosed for 2 months!)   Annamarie

1. Coarctation of the Aorta (COA)

2. Interrupted aortic arch

3. Aortic stenosis

4. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS)

5. d-TGA

6. Truncus arteriosus

7. Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF)

8. TAPVC

RESPONSES:

1. Marlee had an Interupted Aortic Arch and a VSD and wasn’t diagnosed until she was 2 days old and her PDA was closing!

2. My son had d-TGA with a VSD. Dx at 5 days old!!!

3. The defects listed are critical when the children’s lives depend on the ductus staying open. This is why I would like to follow the pulse ox push before discharge with a pulse ox at the pediatrician’s office on day three. There will be many, many more caught if we can do both (posted by a former NICU nurse in Tennessee)

4. They didn’t catch Lauren’s HLHS in utero. We didn’t know something was wrong until about 19 hours after she was born when she stopped nursing. The surgeon told us later they may have missed it because her left ventricle is 60% the size it should be, which is large for HLHS. At one point, they even considered trying to let her use the left ventricle, but they decided against it.

5. They didn’t catch Brayden’s TOF in utero. Diagnosed at 3 days old.

6. None of Caylen’s defects including heterotaxy, dextrocardia, TGA, av discordance (just some of the major defects) were seen in utero. It took them three days just to figure out all her defects and diagnose her.  I love the pulse ox campaign, though, to catch all the ones who don’t show up as dramatically as hers did after she was born. I push it to everyone. My brother is a respiratory therapist in a NICU and he’s pushing the idea, too.

7. My daughter’s TOF was diagnosed at three days old…we knew something wasn’t right because her murmur was SO loud but, nothing was ever picked up in utero.

8. My son was born with a vsd, pds, asd, and an extra mass in his heart.. and he was born with heterotaxy and polysplenia syndrome and we didn’t find out until he was 2 months old because he was breathing fast. I took him to the emergency room and that’s how we found out…we were in total shock.

9. My daughter’s TOF was caught by a nurse who heard the very loud murmur AFTER the doc wrote our discharge orders for home. We were literally 10 minutes away from going home. An OB/GYN did our US at 18 weeks and couldn’t get the blood flow. I will always wonder if someone else would have detected the TOF. I’m all for the pulse ox and blood pressure check on upper and lower extremities.

10. I had 5 sonograms – and none caught Dom’s CHD (coarctation of the aorta, biccupsid aortic valve, mitral valve stenosis). The only reason why it was caught before we went home because we were in NICU because they thought he had an infection and he was getting antibiotics. They heard the mumur when he was 4 days old and did the echo just as procedure. I was told that if it wasn’t caught then, I would have been back in the hospital before 2 weeks was up with Dom in heart failure. So I am thankful that we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

11. Maddy’s TAPVR went undetected for two weeks after birth.

12. My son had critical aortic stenosis that was not caught until a few hours after he was born. He turned blue shortly after he was born. He ended up having a heart transplant when he was 6 weeks old. He will be 7 yrs next week! I love the idea of the Pulse Ox for all new borns!

13. Alex’s HLHS wasn’t diagnosed until he was 2 months old. It’s a miracle he’s still with us. An unusually large left ventrical was the difference.  Hopefully we can work together to make sure more heart defects are detected earlier so others won’t have to worry like we did.

Some of you know the Saarinen’s took our first vacation as a family of 5 last week.  It was an Orlando extravaganza.  The whole Disney thing.  I know our babies won’t remember a blessed thing.  And our teenager is probably outgrown it, but we were all onboard with it.

Our first full day was slated for the Magic Kingdom.  It was gorgeous.  75 and sunny.  Coming from Minnesota, you don’t realize how tropical that really feels until you are in it.  We ventured into the park with our “We’re Celebrating” buttons.  We hit the castle just in time for a musical number with all the big-time Disney characters.  Mickey, Minney, Goofey, Princesses, Buzz Lightyear…all of em.  We were strolling the two little ones up for a closer look and out of nowhere, I start bawling.  Like serious breakdown.  I kneel down next to Elle, our 2 year old…partly to avoid too many stares.

The enormity of the past year, I think, just hit me at that single moment.  I realized that if we had lost Eve that I could never be standing there feeling the joy of being in such a wonderful place with all of my children.  Something would have been forever missing.  With this, instantly comes the thought of all the families we have come to know (and many we don’t know, but realize exist) that HAVE lost their children to killer heart defects and heart disease.  Many of them have other children – and must TRY to go on and have family vacations and such, right?  But how could you look up at Cinderella and not think of the child who wasn’t there to be part of it??

I have no doubt that the tears that day were indeed tears of joy.  Complete, overwhelming joy.  My husband and I were able to afford a real vacation with all three of our children in tow…to this very magical place.  We were happy.  And we were healthy.  And that is something I will never have enough gratitude for.  Cinderella, you made me cry.  And I think I needed that.  Thank you.