Infant heart transplants are never routine, but for a child who wouldn’t otherwise survive a congenital heart defect, they’ve become much more common. That wasn’t the case 32 years ago when Leslie Keown of Franklin, Kentucky, was born. Transplanting the heart of a days-old baby was almost unheard of, but it was a lifesaving procedure…
More often than not, a child complaining of chest pain doesn’t suggest a serious problem. Children, young ones especially, aren’t very reliable when it comes to describing their own pain. “Most of the time, chest pain in children is not caused by a heart problem,” said Brian J. Holland, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist with Norton…
Eleanor Westenhofer, an 8-year-old heart transplant patient, led a delegation to Washington. Eleanor, along with a team from Norton Children’s Hospital, met with lawmakers to make sure they keep sick kids in mind as they work on health care legislation. She took part in Speak Now for Kids 2019 Family Advocacy Day. Eleanor shared this about…
Anytime a child or teenager faints, “passes out” or loses consciousness, family members — as well as the child or teen — often worry there might be something terribly wrong. The good news is that fainting or syncope (pronounced sin-koh-pee) in most older children and teenagers who are otherwise healthy does not automatically mean that…
Audrey Sims’ first clue that her twins’ birth would be complicated came at 14 weeks of pregnancy, when a routine ultrasound found that one of her sons, Aiden, had a blocked lymph node, which can increase the risk of miscarriage. Audrey’s OB/GYN at King’s Daughters’ Hospital in Madison, Indiana, referred Audrey and her husband, Andrew,…
Diaphragmatic hernia is a hole in the diaphragm caused by a birth defect. The diaphragm is the large muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen. In a diaphragmatic hernia, organs such as intestines, spleen, stomach and liver move through the hole in the diaphragm into a baby’s chest. A hernia is a condition in…
How does your heart beat? Your heart beats because of the actions of a highly specialized electrical system. It listens in to what’s going on with you at the time and triggers the muscular walls of the heart to contract in an organized fashion and at the right heart rate, either slow or fast, and…
Bahaaldin Alsoufi, M.D., says that the road to becoming a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon is a long one. He started his journey at 16, when he first vowed to become a heart surgeon. After earning his medical degree in Syria, he spent 24 years training and building his career at universities and hospitals in the United…
Normal heartbeats can be slow when an individual is resting or asleep, fast when running, excited or upset, and somewhere in between at other times. Even at rest, young children have faster heartbeats than older children, who have faster heartbeats than teenagers or adults. The variability in heart beats is due to the heart’s electrical…
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) isn’t life-threatening for otherwise healthy children if they receive proper care. Infants and children with various types of other heart disease are most at risk of fast heartbeats due to SVT. SVT treatment includes short-term methods to stop the episode, and long-term treatment to prevent future spells. “Home remedies” for SVT There…
Elizabeth and Andrew Byler were devastated when their first child, Emily, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. A few years later, they were shocked to discover their second child, Ethan, also had a heart defect and would require a transplant. But sometimes there are three sides to every story. In February 2017 their third…
If your child has been diagnosed with a heart condition, this is no time to be on your own learning about the condition, worrying about the finances of treatment, coordinating appointments with specialists — the list goes on. Patients and their families at Norton Children’s Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Louisville, are assigned…