is vsd a life compatible desease?

[amabelle]

hello doctors, i am a mother of a 7 month old baby diagnosed with vsd at 4 months with a 6.7mm hole in the heart....i would like to know more about this case....coz sorry to say but i have a belieff that doctors in my country makes the profession of surgery as commercial. I have researched far and wide, the mortality rate of babies having an open heart surgery in the philippines. mY child's case is non-symptomic. We didnt even know hes got this vsd because he is so active and never had a single attack or symptoms that would makeus beleive hes got vsd. Doctors said he needs to have a surgery as soon as possible asking us half a million peso just for the surgery alone. what i am concerned of is if it is possible to have the surgery when he gets a little older...not as young ang frail as 7 months?

[grendslori]

The hole that large in your son would probably warrantent doing the surgery. If you don't do the surgery, you risk your son developing Congestive Heart Failure which is a chronic form of heart disease. Babies as young as 1 or 2 days old have heart surgery and do well. It is important that you have a good facility such as a University Hospital, preferably a Children's Hospital that has a lot of experience doing heart surgeries on babies.

[momtofourboys]

high there my son was born with a large VSD. his heart was the size of a walnut and the hole was the size of a dime. The doctors did his surgery at the age of 3 1/2 months. they used a patch to fix it and it can take several years for the hole to close around the patch.Chris did go into heart failure and that is why he went sooner then later, like they thought he would.
it is very scary to have your child's heart to be worked on. there are always risk with any surgery. did your doctors tell you what was going to happen during the surgery? that is what made us feel somewhat better was we were told what to expect. he came through it better then they expected, plus he had a ASD(hole in the upper part and had another thing they found and fixed)
once the surgery is over he will need time to heal of course then he should be a "normal" child. also our doctor told us to expect him to be delayed in crawling and walking so we worked with him. he was in the hospital for a long time prior to having his surgery he was sick with other infections
Good luck and keep us posted

[amabelle]

thank you for that shared experience with ur son...well the fear i have now is that the majority of those babies with vsd here in the philippines doesnt survive long, much to a mortality rate than success rate......ive tried to join forums too and ask about this matter....at least in the states this condition has been a normal occurence already with babies....and as far as my researches 90 percent are success stories. i can bring my child but i need to save more for the surgery...but anyhow...as long as he survives...most of the cases of vsd in the forums i joined said that it is life compatible and am just as hopeful..that surgery can be done like when he is 2 years of age...coz he is too frail...but as for ur experience with ur son...im having thoughts to do it asap...though d doctors just have to tell me it should take place within this year if possible and when able...all the same thanks for the advice

[momtofourboys]

Hi there the doctors told us that with in 6 months to a year Chris would have to ahve surgery, when he was 5 weeks old he got critically ill and had to be put on a ventilator for 11 days the illness made him very very weak and not sure if that cause him to go onto heart failure again and that is why they said lets do it now. they did put om n medications and most likley could have been okay on that for a while. he was on digoxin, lasix and captipril (not sure of all th spellings)

i wish you the bes and try contacting your higher up people in your Gov. they might be able to help you