A Hole In the Heart

The day after my son was born the doctor gave us terrifying news. Our baby had a ventricular septal defect (VSD). That meant that our son had a ‘hole’ in his heart. The doctor tried to reassure us that it could be a small issue that would not affect him but they wanted to do testing on him and wanted to refer him to a cardiologist.

My wife, Kara, is a pre-school teacher and has several students who have had this problem so we at least had a little knowledge that it was not always a serious issue. Still, we were frightened and concerned for our new little miracle. When we arrived home we set up our appointment with the specialist and then tried to learn everything we could about the condition.

Our first reference was to our baby books. They both had exhaustive lists of common infant ailments as well as numerous conditions that may affect the baby. To our surprise none of our books had anything on a VSD. We knew from Kara’s experience that they were at least relatively common but there was nothing. So, we searched the internet. The American Heart Association provided some decent answers.

Here is what we learned:

A VSD is a small defect between the heart’s lower chambers. If it is a large hole then it can affect the heart because the blood pumped from one chamber highly oxygenated only to be pushed through the hole into the other chamber which pushes the blood back into the lungs. This re-oxygenates the blood instead of letting the blood that needs oxygen pass through to the lungs. This can cause stress on the heart because it has to work harder to oxygenate all the blood.

If the defect is large it may require surgery to be patched. The surgery, it seems, is highly affective with very few risks besides those generally associated with an invasive surgery.

For a small defect, like the one my son had, there is little affect on the child besides a murmur when the doctor listens to the heart. The VSD generally closes on its own within the first year and is never a problem again. However, there is some chance that a small hole will never close. The only problem that this presents is that when the child has to go to the dentist he will have to precede the visits with a treatment of antibiotics for the rest of his life to avoid infection.
When we finally did see the cardiologist she informed us that our son’s VSD was barely noticeable and would likely be gone before long. It would cause no long term issues and would not result in any kind of activity limitations as in many congenital heart defects. She even stated that he could be a professional football player if he wanted (clearly discounting the complete lack of athletic ability in both parents).

He will have to see a cardiologist for a while which can be difficult. Our son hates the equipment they have to use to do his tests (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) but at least we know he’s going to be okay.

Here's the address for the American Heart Association: www.americanheart.org