My three month old baby son had a hole in his heart or a ventricular septal defect (VSD) that needed to be fixed for him to survive. My son was three months old and had only gained one pound. He was not thriving well at all. We seen a cardiologist who said the VSD had to be repaired and my son's heart was also mal-aligned or the two bottom ventricles came off of one chamber. My son had a large hole in the middle of the bottom chambers and one small hole in the top chambers. We went to Maine Medical Center for the surgery. The surgery was only supposed to take four hours but took nine we were so scared. The reason for surgery taking so long was because the repair was difficult. The large hole was repaired with a gortex patch and the patch was placed so it would separate the two bottom valves as well. After surgery things are still going good. My son is now four months old and has gained two pounds. I am still scared that something else will happen but I think it is just my nerves after having been through something so traumatic as seeing your baby boy pretty much starving because because he was too weak to eat. My son also had congestive heart failure before his surgery that was controlled for a month by Lasix and Digoxin. We did not know what was wrong with our baby for the first three months and the pediatricians did not take notice to him not gaining weight like we did. It is very important that if you feel there is something wrong keep on pushing for something to be done even if you have to find another doctor. We had too. I would love to hear from anyone else who has gone through this or something similar. JennH@prodigy.net.

Jenn