"Where Are They Now? Stories of Adult Survivors of Pediatric Heart Surgery" - Anna Medaris Miller
When Patrick Lowery was born, he had 10 fingers and 10 toes, wailed upon delivery and, by all other accounts, appeared a normal, healthy baby. Twenty-four hours later, he was anything but. Lowery was hemorrhaging and having seizures, and doctors detected his kidneys were failing. They didn't think he was going to survive. Lowery had a heart defect called coarctation of the aorta, which means the blood vessel that carries blood away from the heart was narrowing Lowery is among a new group of adults who are survivors of pediatric heart surgeries. Before the 1970s and 1980s, many such surgeries didn't exist and babies born with congenital heart defects didn't make it to adulthood; many didn't even make it to their first birthdays, says Peter Pastuszko, MD, chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery and director of pediatric cardiovascular services at Mount Sinai Health System who operated on Charlie. Since then, the procedures have advanced such that 90-plus percent of children are surviving them compared to about 50 percent in the '80s and '90s. "We've gotten so much better at taking care of those kids," Dr. Pastuszko says.
- Peter Pastuszko, MD, Chief, Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery, Director, Pediatric Cardiovascular Services, Mount Sinai Health System