Our second appointment was with Adriana's future cardiac surgeon, Dr. Kaushal. This was the first time we've met him, and so he gave us the complete low-down. Dr. Kaushal explained that depending on how Adriana's right ventrical grows and functions, will depend on the type of surgical procedures he will have to perform on her heart. If her right ventrical proves to be healthy and successful in assisting blood flow, at around 6-8 months of age, he will surgically close the hole between the two ventricals. This particular surgical procedure has proven to have over a 90% success rate, and it would be her first and last heart operation. However, if her right ventrical is not sufficiently large enough, two different surgeries will have to be done. The first will be at 6-8 months of age, and she will have to have a band around her pulmonary artery to restrict blood flow to the lungs (to make sure blood disperses evenly throughout the body). At around 3 years of age, she would have to have a Glenn Shunt. These two surgeries have a 90% success rate. Surgeons have been implementing these procedures for the last 20 years, so they are not new or unheard of. Many of the babies who had these surgeries are now in their 20's, living good lives. In the last 4 years, UMMC has not lost any of these children/babies and they continue to perfect these operations.
Dr. Kaushal reiterated that we will not know which path we'll have to take until after Adriana is born and she has a series of CT scans as well as echos. We hope for the best.
