T.G.A.: Our Experience with This Heart Defect and Open Heart Surgery

Our youngest baby was born blue and a few hours later we had to travel to the nearest children's hospital. We entered the NICU where we spoke with cardiologists while they explained our newborns heart condition. We found out that our newborn had a condition called Transposition of the Great Arteries or T.G.A. for short.

The next day there was a surgery to try to correct the heart defect. The surgery they did was a heart catheterization. Which basically enlarged a small hole that every baby is born with, in an attempt to make the hole bigger and help the blood and oxygen to mix better. This was not enough to correct the problem. After this surgery our baby was moved to the CICU, for heart related intensive care.

That is when we learned about the open-heart surgery that would be necessary to fix the problem. Then we had to wait for a few days for the surgeon to arrive from New York who would perform the surgery.

While we waited they took out the ventilator and made our little one breath with out help. Twenty minutes later as I was beside the bed, my baby stopped breathing. The hospital was prepared and hooked the ventilator up again. But, I was not prepared - that was the hardest day for me. Seeing your child stop breathing its something I will never forget.

There were so many emotions involved with this. During that time we had so much support from our family. And many friends gave support and care packages. It would have been much harder to go through all this alone.

The day of the surgery arrived and it was a long eight hours. It was hard to believe what was happening to my baby. They kind of explained to us what goes on during the surgery. Taking the body temperature down and then a machine is pumping the blood, bypassing the heart. It seemed crazy to me, how could that possibly work. But, I knew that those nurses and doctors do that kind of surgery everyday, so it must be ok.
Great news our little one came through it wonderfully!

Another week of watching, waiting, healing and we finally got to go home. It was a long three weeks in the hospital. But, at the end we got to take our baby home with us. Years later there are still visits to the cardiologist and special tests. But we are hopeful that there will be no more heart surgeries in the future. We are so happy that our baby is healthy and virtually unrestricted today.