Monday, February 4, 2013
Feb. 4- CHD Awareness Story- Katie's Story
Katie was born on March 28, 2006 at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. We knew ahead of time that she would be born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). They were able to see at my 19 week ultrasound that she was missing one of the chambers of her heart. We traveled 3 1/2 hours from our home in Tennessee to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for all 3 of her open heart surgeries and any other care that she may need that deals with her heart. Katie did wel,l for the most part, after her 1st two surgeries with little complications, but the Fontan was definitely a challenge. After the Fontan, we couldn't seem to get rid of pleural effusions around her lungs and even came home with pigtail catheters on each side that we had to drain every day at home. She was on the verge of being placed on the transplant list in Jan. 2010 when finally by the grace of God the fluid dried up. In her short life she has had 3 open heart surgeries, 8 heart caths, a g-tube placed due to a paralyzed vocal cord during her 1st surgery (it was removed on her 1st birthday), migraines, lots of medicine, and numerous hospital stays mostly due to the pleural effusions, She is doing well now. She is in 1st grade. She enjoyed playing softball and is now taking a dance class. She loves doing most things that a 6 year old little girl would do.
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Pigtail catheters is basically used in draining fluids or air from pleural spaces internally. At the end of the coil catheter looks like a loop and resembles a pig tail hence this Catheter is called Pigtail Catheter in the medical fraternity. The end of the coil helps to hold the Pigtail Catheter in proper and specific place and used to slow down the flow of fluids injected through the catheter so that they do not apply any pressure or burst out causing injury.
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