A healthy heart for Hally

Photo Stevens LeBlanc

Catherine Bouchard

Sunday, 31 December 2017 00:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 31 December 2017 00:00

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The smile mocking and sparkling eyes, Hally, a girl of five years, ready to start the year 2018 with a healthy heart, after an early life very difficult and several years of living with problems of tachycardia.

Twelve hours after being born, on July 12, 2012, doctors of the hospital of Thetford Mines have discovered a cardiac malformation in Hally, an abnormality Ebstein. It is a defect in the formation of a valve that separates the atrium and the right ventricle.

Myriam Brisson, the mother of Hally, saw that her baby was amorphous. “We found that we had a baby quiet,” observes Anthony Roy, the father of the little girl.

“Stressful “

The small has, therefore, been transferred from emergency to the CHUL. The first objective was to administer a medication to keep a vein open in the heart.

“There was in the world, it was full in the room and it was just for Hally. It was stressful, ” remembers the father.

Unfortunately, the medicine was not working. “They have therefore had to have surgery to install a small balloon in the heart. She had 12 days of life, ” says the mother of Hally.

The surgery went well and everyone could blow a little. The parents returned each evening to the family residence of the Saint-Jules, Beauce, in order to take care of the eldest daughter of the family.

The next morning, Hally has had complications. “She had a pulmonary hemorrhage, and necrotizing enterocolitis,” recalls Ms. Brisson. Hally was therefore intubated for 10 days.

At the end of the 10th day, Hally is extubée. As all goes well, the parents are returned in Beauce, with their other daughter. Before bedtime, they were called to the hospital to ensure that the small is doing well. “The doctor told me that it was going well, and that we should come to the hospital,” says the mother. We were preparing really to lose Hally, we were aware “.

“They didn’t know if she was going to spend the night,” adds the father. The couple makes emergency CHUL. Hally was a respiratory acidosis. “Usually, when things weren’t going well, they we went out of the room. That evening, they have put two chairs at the foot of the bed. The night was decisive, ” recalled the father.

Mission accomplished

Photo Stevens LeBlanc

Hally has undergone its last intervention on November 29 in order to resolve problems of tachycardia. She is in full form today.

The doctors have finally been able to save the small, in extremis. Hally lived then with problems of tachycardia, related to his health problems in early life. She had to wait until getting to a weight at least 20 kg to solve this last problem. She underwent the surgery last November 29. It takes a month to say mission accomplished. “Officially, the 1st January, we will be able to say that we have won “, delights the father to Hally.

A fault that affects little children

Photo Stevens LeBlanc

The disease that affects the young Hally affects between four and five new-born babies each year in Quebec.

The anomaly of Ebstein’s malformation-severe one of the main heart valves, either the tricuspid valve that is responsible for preventing the reflux of blood between the right ventricle and the right atrium (the atrium).

This condition requires major surgery. “It is an open heart surgery which allows the blood to flow as in a normal heart,” explains Dr. Jean-Marc Côté, the cardiologist who treats the little Hally Roy.

The child had been doubly unlucky, since the anomaly of Ebstein has also resulted in a major complication of his pulmonary valve. It didn’t open.

The first surgery at ten days of life, was, therefore, aimed to correct the opening of this valve. “It is a major procedure. This is the surgery that has changed his life, ” stresses Dr. Côté.

The corrective surgery for the defect of Ebstein, it, occurred in June of 2013, while Hally was 11 months old. “We have closed a communication between the two atria of the heart to normalize the circulation of the blood,” says the cardiologist.

Last response

The last intervention, the 29 November last, has solved the problems of tachycardia of Hally, related to his deformity. “There was a small short circuit that caused his heart could beat up to 260 beats per minute, without warning, a little bit no matter when,” says the doctor.

Each time, Hally had to be admitted to hospital to return his heart is in the right pace. The cardiologist was so burned that a short-circuit. “It ends up improving the quality of life,” concludes Dr. Côté.