Unlike cardiac arrest or heart disease developed over a lifetime from the diet, lack of activity, or exposure to environmental factors such as chemicals, congenital heart disease involves birth defects. These are issues that patients have always had from day one of life, some clearly apparent and immediate, while others were part of them, sitting like a buried minefield to be discovered as the right trigger developed and presented itself. In the past, children with congenital heart disease or CHD were not expected to have full lives and length of mortality. However, with the advances in medicine and health, children and babies today with CHD have much better outlooks and are living much longer as a result.
Technical Background
Unlike cholesterol buildup, heart function issues, or age-related conditions, congenital heart disease is a fundamental concern right from birth affecting how a newborn baby’s heart operates. Insignificant cases, the heart just isn’t functioning properly and needs immediate medical help. In mild cases, a CHD might simply need a small surgery to stop a minor hole in the heart. Generally, 25 percent of newborns with a CHD are in the critical category and will need immediate, severe attention to stay alive the first year.
CHD isn’t one specific situation. It can include defects that involve holes in the heart, a muscle that is fundamental to circulating blood through the body, vent development problems, missing heart development parts, problems with the ventricles and major inflow and outflow channels of the heart, problems with the immediately-connected arteries, inability to pump and create sufficient circulatory pressure, and missing separations between the heart chambers.
Spotting CHD Presence
Circulation challenges are often the most immediate signs of CHD. Extremities are a bluish color due to missing blood flow, disrupted breathing in the newborn, exhaustion and excessive sleeping as the body conserves energy, erratic heart rhythms, and similar. In some cases, CHD is identified early during pregnancy and by ultrasound examinations. At other times, it is identified right after birth.
Addressing CHD
In severe cases, immediate surgery is often required to create the needed corrections for the heart to function normally. In other cases, invasive procedures limited to clearing the blood flow channels may be used to stabilize the heart and circulation until the baby is older and ready for more serious treatment. In still other cases, it is a matter of stabilization or maintaining a level of care that allows the baby to live and function to some extent but he or she will never have full human heart capacity.
Programs like Conquering CHD work tirelessly to provide support and resources to help understand and treat CHD better, as well as to provide significant help and comfort for parents and their children with CHD. No parent wants to lose a child or outlive their children. Conquering CHD helps families with one of the toughest challenges in life medically right from the beginning.
