Few could be happier than Michelle Guevara, whose daughter, Apolonia
“Apple” Guevara, was born with congenital heart defects and underwent her first
heart surgery with Children’s Hospital of Michigan at just 2 weeks old.
Eight babies per 1,000 live births will be born with heart
abnormalities that require follow-up care, said Children’s Hospital of Michigan
Chief of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr. Mamdouh Dakhel Al-Ahmadi, who
performed Apple’s surgery. About 600 to 700 babies in Michigan undergo heart
procedures each year, with hundreds of those taking place at the Children’s
Hospital of Michigan, he added.
“These are very delicate surgeries, and we want to make
preparing for them and following up as easy as possible for our patients and
families,” Dr. Al-Ahmadi said.
Actual surgeries will continue to take place at Children’s Hospital
of Michigan’s main campus on Beaubien Street in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood.
The new Pediatric Heart Surgery Clinic at the site on Big Beaver in Troy will
offer pre- and post-surgical appointments for young patients and their
families.
“The best pediatric cardiac care in Metro Detroit will now
be more convenient for so many of them,” said Children’s Hospital of Michigan
CEO Archie Drake. “Families travel from all over the state – and across
country, in some cases – for the expertise of doctors at the Children’s
Hospital of Michigan. We are very pleased to be able to provide this new clinic
location.”
The pediatric heart surgeons at Children’s Hospital of
Michigan offer the most advanced procedures to fix myriad heart defects,
including:
Truncus arteriosus
Arterial Switch Operation;
Complex biventricular repair;
Norwood operation;
Arioventricular septal defect repair;
Heart transplant;
Left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a type of
heart pump.
Michelle and Ramon Guevara didn’t know something was wrong
when Apple was born on January 13. The Waterford couple had been trying to
conceive a child for three years, suffering three miscarriages. They were
ecstatic to finally conceive using IVF. Michelle underwent a fetal echo with
their family obstetrician at 18 and 24 weeks, and each time they thought everything
was good.
But after Apple was born by Cesarean section, she was having
a little trouble breathing and was whisked away to the hospital’s neonatal
intensive care unit, or NICU, where her tiny hands and feet started turning
blue. Michelle remembered her doctor had said her baby should get a heart echo
within 48 hours of birth, since IVF babies have a higher incident rate of fetal
heart abnormalities.
They discovered a hernia of Michelle’s had hidden a heart
defect in their little Apple.
As the hospital quickly called the cardiac specialists at
Children’s Hospital of Michigan and the PandaOne pediatric ambulance team for
help, they comforted the Guevaras. Michelle, still recovering from the
C-section, had to stay behind at the hospital where she delivered.
“The Panda Team from Children’s came, and the nurses saw how
upset we were,” Michelle said. “They didn’t know how bad her heart was, and they
let us hold her for the first time in the transition to the ambulance. So we
got to hold her for five minutes.”
Dr. Al-Ahmadi immediately knew when he saw Apple that he
could fix her heart condition: closing two large holes between chambers and
rebuilding a narrowed ascending aortic arch, the vessel that brings all the red
blood from the heart to the body . Apple survived after delivery because her “patent
ductus arteriosus,” or PDA remained open. The ductus arteriosus is an extra
blood vessel between the pulmonary artery and the aorta that allows blood flow
from the pulmonary artery to the aorta, bypassing the lungs because the baby is
getting oxygenated blood from the mother. It typically closes immediately after
birth; Apple’s was still open until Dr. Al-Ahmadi closed it during the surgery.
“These are the types of surgeries that we do often, so we
know what to expect and the proven, most advanced techniques to use,” he said.
“We sit down with parents in the NICU and explain what to expect, step-by-step.
Our expertise and experience at Children’s Hospital of Michigan provides
comfort, knowing that their child is being treated by a top-notch medical
team.”
While hearing everything was overwhelming for the new
parents, Michelle credits Dr. Al-Ahmadi for comforting them through the
process.
“He was so wonderful with us,” she said. “He told us on the
day of Apple’s surgery, ‘I have seven kids, but today I will have eight because
I am going to treat Apple like one of my own.’ That was so touching and comforting
but so scary at the same time.”
In an 8-hour procedure on January 25, Dr. Al-Ahmadi and the
Children’s Hospital of Michigan team fixed the larger of the two holes, widened
the aortic arch and put a band around the pulmonary artery. In a second surgery
on June 2, Dr. Al-Ahmadi removed the pulmonary artery band, fixed the second
hole and checked on the arch repair.
“The NICU and PICU nurses were wonderful; they made us feel
so much better,” Michelle said, “And Apple’s doing amazing now. She’s our
little heart warrior. Now she’s just a normal baby, doing her normal things.”
The Guevaras’ advice to other parents who face a serious
diagnosis: find a team that you trust.
“It’s not something any new parent should have to endure,
but without those nurses or doctors, I don’t know – they were really awesome ,”
Michelle said. “So many babies are there. But when they’re with you, you feel
like they’re caring only for your baby.”
For more information or to make an appointment with the
Children’s Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery team, call
313-745-5538.
Media contact:
Tammy Battaglia, Communications Manager
Tbattagl@dmc.org
248-881-0809 cell
