Medical/science question

Darth RyanKCR · Post by **Darth RyanKCR** » 2005-05-07 01:17pm

Question for those who know or understand human biology and/or are in the medical profession if there are any here. Just learned some info about the anatomy of my heart just before my first surgery in 1971. I have tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. My doctor said that I had the hole between the ventricles and the right and pulmonary arteries were normal but the main pulmonary artery was just a stump that stopped just before it was attached to the heart. At six weeks old I went into congestive heart failure when the ductus between the Aorta and the Pulmonary closed. I had the first surgery when I was 7 weeks old. My mother had indicated that when I would cry my veins would turn black and I was very gray. I did not have any collatoral vessels that sometimes are associated with this defect. What I want to know is what allowed me to survive for the 3 days to a week before the surgery when they fused the Aorta and Pulmonary. Is there an alternate oxygenation of the blood that I am not aware of.

I am finding my medical history fascinating more and more. I don't have the answer for this yet.

Thanks!

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2005-05-07 01:46pm

Tetralogy of Fallot comprises the following:
Pulmonary stenosis, overriding aorta, right ventricular hypertrophy and an interventricular septal defect.

Your PDA probably would've been shunting blood into your lungs, but as you said that closed 6th week. You also have your bronchial arteries that are fed from straight off of the aorta, and those are the ones that are primarily responsible for keeping your lungs functional (not your blood oxygenated), but who knows, those might have engorged some? Or the doctors may have had you on some type of temporary bypass?

Darth RyanKCR · Post by **Darth RyanKCR** » 2005-05-07 05:40pm

Trytostaydead wrote:Tetralogy of Fallot comprises the following:
Pulmonary stenosis, overriding aorta, right ventricular hypertrophy and an interventricular septal defect.

Your PDA probably would've been shunting blood into your lungs, but as you said that closed 6th week. You also have your bronchial arteries that are fed from straight off of the aorta, and those are the ones that are primarily responsible for keeping your lungs functional (not your blood oxygenated), but who knows, those might have engorged some? Or the doctors may have had you on some type of temporary bypass?

Thanks. I forgot about the bronchial arteries but there was nothing about extra arteries feeding the lungs for oxygenation. When my mother took me to the hospital when I was very gray and she said I was unable to even breathe they just made me comfortable for three days telling her that it would be over by midnight each day. Finally my pediatrician ordered them to send me to the hospital that specialized in these things and who diagnosed it soon after my birth. It was there and then they performed the first heart surgery and did a Waterston shunt. I just am unaware of what could have kept me alive those three days unless the pda did not close entirely but I never had anything done about that.

Funny thing is when I was ten and they tore down the Waterston shunt, a suture came loose on the posterior of the Aorta and I bled out. I took about 50 pints of blood in less then 48 hours.

I am looking to get a book I saw about tet in adults. I am now have arrythmia issues and the right ventricle is non-functional. I am being told that in the future I can expect a transplant. But I don't know all that happened as a child except that I know with no blood to the lungs for oxygenation there was no way I should have survived unless there is something I am missing but the medical reports I have don't show any alternet routes that had to be taken out.

Thanks!

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-05-07 08:08pm

Are you still trying to prove that your survival was a miracle from God even though it required massive medical intervention from modern science?

Trytostaydead · Post by **Trytostaydead** » 2005-05-07 08:21pm

I'm a bit confused about the timeline here. When did they do the shunt? The shunt of course would keep you alive. Though the PDA may have still been slightly open and they may have been giving you drugs to keep it open. so make sure to ask if your PDA closed before they made the shunt.

Darth RyanKCR · Post by **Darth RyanKCR** » 2005-05-07 09:12pm

Trytostaydead wrote:I'm a bit confused about the timeline here. When did they do the shunt? The shunt of course would keep you alive. Though the PDA may have still been slightly open and they may have been giving you drugs to keep it open. so make sure to ask if your PDA closed before they made the shunt.

I asked him on Monday since I never knew that my Pulmonary Artery was never attached to the heart. I asked about the drug that is now used. He said it was not available then.

Timeline:
12/31/70 I was born and diagnosed with several defects heart murmur as main problem.

Sometime before 2/16/71 I was diagnosed with ToF/PA.

2/16/71 I was admitted to local hospital and expected to die. Then sent by ambulance on 2/19/71 to the hospital that did the Waterston shunt. Jan of 1977 they did the Blalock-Taussig shunt. Oct of 1981 they did the total correction and tore down the shunts and the Aorta bled out at the Waterston site.

Darth RyanKCR · Post by **Darth RyanKCR** » 2005-05-07 09:16pm

Oh sorry. Nothing about when the PDA closed. When I told my current doctor that I had black veins and asked about the PDA and the drug he got a shocked face and explained that the drug was not available then. It was never closed by surgery and probable closed on its own but I don't know when. That is the only thing I can think of that let me survive. It seems that it closed that last time I was taken to the hospital and sent to the other one but I don't have definate info about it.

Thanks for you insight. I think my survival was because of the PDA but I'm not sure.