Simple test can detect infant heart disease
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As a mother of a son affected by a Critical Congenital Heart Defect, also known as infant heart disease, I was thrilled to see the public notice about Pulse Oximetry being made a statewide rule for all hospitals. One in 100 babies are born with some form of congenital heart defect; it’s the number-one killer of our children. Did you know that babies are three times more likely to die from heart disease than all forms of childhood cancer combined? Congenital heart defects are malformations of the heart or major blood vessels that occur before birth. In many cases, however, hospital staff may not identify these defects and outwardly healthy infants like my son may be admitted to nurseries and discharged from hospitals before the signs of disease are detected.
This was the case with our son Colter. We were sent home believing we had a healthy and normal baby, but in all reality our son was in congestive heart failure. It wasn’t until four days later at his first check up the pediatrician checked his oxygen saturations (using a pulse oximeter). Even though our son looked normal from the outside, his oxygen levels were at 85 percent. He had to have open-heart surgery to repair his severely broken heart at 10 days old. We’re blessed to have our son alive and well today, but some babies don’t have four days to spare.
If it wasn’t for this test I don’t know what the outcome would’ve been for Colter, but what I do know is that this non-invasive test saved his life.
Pulse oximetry is an effective way to screen newborns for potential defects. It is a low-cost, non-invasive and painless bedside test that can be completed by a technician in as little as 45 seconds. You may be asking yourself, “Well how much is this test?” A recent cost-effectiveness analysis estimated that universal newborn pulse oximetry screenings would cost $4 per infant. So why aren’t we doing this already?
Thank you from a heart mom, for implementing pulse oximetry as part of a statewide screening requirement for newborns. This will save lives. If you want find out how you can help, email me at mtheartmoms@gmail.com
