I'm sorry I completely forgot to post an update here.
Almost a year ago I posted a message about my nephew Ketil who had defect in his heart valve which required surgery. We knew about the heart valve, and the constricted blood vessels in the heart before he was born, so we were all very worried.
The moment he was born he turned blue, and only a few minutes later my little sister - who is his mother - had to wait outside the ward, while the surgeons did an emergency balloon expansion procedure on his heart, by threading a needly up through the veins of his chest. The procedure worked, but for a couple of months it was touch and go. He was too weak to cry, but still did soundlessly on occassion.
Examinations showed a huge number of defects in his heart. The full description of their extent filled at least two sheets of papers. Because of the extent of them, and in particular because of the possibility of other anomalies that would only show up during surgery, they delayed an operation to fix his heart valves until they had gathered a dream team of the best surgeons available for this.
Half a year ago, they operated on him for sixteen hours. The original plan was to replace his valve with an artificial one - which would have required him to take immunosupressants for the rest of his life - but we were very happy to see that the head surgeon was smiling when he came out. They were able to avoid using the artificial heart valve.
We'll always be indepted to that hospital (figuratively - universal healthcare).
And I want to thank all of you for your prayers. God was merciful.
Ketil rapidly improved, grew up a happy and healthy (lagging a bit behind in his growth at first because of the low blood supply, but he's getting there). Mentally he's alert and no one has found anything missing on him. If we do he's surrounded by a loving family and we'll take it from there. He's growing up now very well, not quite a baby anymore, and is slowly turning into a little boy.
I dug out this image, only a few weeks after surgery, and home for the first time. One happy baby.
Almost a year ago I posted a message about my nephew Ketil who had defect in his heart valve which required surgery. We knew about the heart valve, and the constricted blood vessels in the heart before he was born, so we were all very worried.
The moment he was born he turned blue, and only a few minutes later my little sister - who is his mother - had to wait outside the ward, while the surgeons did an emergency balloon expansion procedure on his heart, by threading a needly up through the veins of his chest. The procedure worked, but for a couple of months it was touch and go. He was too weak to cry, but still did soundlessly on occassion.
Examinations showed a huge number of defects in his heart. The full description of their extent filled at least two sheets of papers. Because of the extent of them, and in particular because of the possibility of other anomalies that would only show up during surgery, they delayed an operation to fix his heart valves until they had gathered a dream team of the best surgeons available for this.
Half a year ago, they operated on him for sixteen hours. The original plan was to replace his valve with an artificial one - which would have required him to take immunosupressants for the rest of his life - but we were very happy to see that the head surgeon was smiling when he came out. They were able to avoid using the artificial heart valve.
We'll always be indepted to that hospital (figuratively - universal healthcare).
And I want to thank all of you for your prayers. God was merciful.
Ketil rapidly improved, grew up a happy and healthy (lagging a bit behind in his growth at first because of the low blood supply, but he's getting there). Mentally he's alert and no one has found anything missing on him. If we do he's surrounded by a loving family and we'll take it from there. He's growing up now very well, not quite a baby anymore, and is slowly turning into a little boy.
I dug out this image, only a few weeks after surgery, and home for the first time. One happy baby.
Comment