by Georgia

I have a really rare heart condition called Pulmonary Atresia which means I was born with my pulmonary valve missing so that the blood in the left of my heart was mixing with the blood in the right - making me a "blue baby".

I also have Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) which is where I had two holes in my heart, and I had an anomalous coronary artery which meant my coronary artery was the wrong way round! I know a lot of things!

Lights, wires and tubes

For some strange reason the condition wasn’t picked up on when I was born, even though I was delivered by C-section. When I was just seven days old the midwife came over to give me a blood test and noticed that I was very blue after having a bath. She took me to the doctors with my mum and dad and they sent me to hospital in blue flashing lights!

As soon as I arrived I was given a blood test, an ECG, an Echo and all sorts of x-rays and other tests. I had to be attached to lots of wires and tubes and was given an emergency operation to open the valve in the left of my heart that was rapidly closing.

Luckily that was a success!

Time for the big op

Now fast forward about one and a half years where I was due for my next operation...this time to fix the right valve in my heart! That also was a success so we were on a roll! I went on to have many check-ups and catheters but amazingly I got through it all until finally I was four-years-old and strong enough to have the operation I so badly needed and wanted (as much as a four-year-old can want needles in her!).

The operation was ten hours long and I made it through but they had so much trouble closing my chest that I was sent to CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit) without being stitched up – they said they weren’t sure I would make it through the night!

However at four o'clock in the morning they phoned my mum to say I had stopped bleeding and I was stable enough to be stitched up. After two days in CICU I was moved from ward to ward until I was finally sent home - and spent four more weeks off school!

Fast-forward to the next op

Anyway, fast forward again to me at age 11 – May 2003 – and I’m arriving at hospital for another operation! I was meant to be having one of the holes in my heart patched up through a catheter and I was really excited!

The next morning I was walking up to the operating theatre ‘Happy as Larry’ – I lay down on the operating table and calmly drifted off to the place they call gas land – all clouds and happy gum drop houses!

When I woke up it was a very different story – I felt very sick and my throat was extremely raw! I cried for my mum and was sick. My nurse was luckily standing right next to me and managed to suction the vomit out of my throat before I fainted!! After a good few days on different wards, I was allowed home, but after being told that the operation had been a failure!

In August 2003 we were told about a device that strengthens artificial pulmonary arteries that had gone floppy but were not completely damaged.

Another attempt

The hospital told us that they would insert the device through another catheter. This device had only been inserted into 36 people in the whole world and I would be number 37. They also decided they were going to attempt to fit the patch that hadn’t worked before. I was the first person in the world to have both those procedures done together!

I was very excited about the operation that, hopefully, would change my life forever! Luckily it went well, although when I came out I was in 3rd degree heart block which means that the electrical current in your heart that makes it pump had been disturbed during the procedure. Eventually I went to 2nd degree and finally to 1st degree, which was good enough for them and for me!

It all turns out well

After a month or so I was back at school and raring to go! I am doing all sorts of sports including my favourite one of all time… dance!

I am so grateful to all the wonderful people at the hospital and hope this gives hope to people out there, that in the end it turns out well! Occasionally, like with me, it takes a while to get better but don't worry! I hope my story helps you.

This story may have been edited by Children First for Health for editorial and confidentiality reasons only.

For more help and information

• The British Heart Foundation

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