Martha

Martha was diagnosed with a complex heart condition at 6 weeks after she gained little weight since birth. Once discovered we were immediately flown to Greenlane Hospital. They explained to us that her lungs couldn’t drain off excess fluid meaning that as we fed her we were drowning her.The aorta, which takes blood from the heart to the rest of the body, and the pulmonary artery, which takes blood to the lungs were joined. The result is oxygenated blood is mixed with non-oxygenated blood, making heart failure inevitable. When Martha first went into surgery, she had to have the two arteries separated, a valve replaced and a hole in her heart repaired. Her first surgery at 7 wks was basically replumbing. The outside of a cow’s heart is used to patch the hole. The valve they replaced is from a donor. Martha needed to have the valve replaced a month before her third birthday. The donor valve doesn’t grow with her as she does and becomes too small for her. She will need to have this replaced again in a few years & then at least one more surgery before the age of 20.

Although she has her heart condition she is a bright, bubbly, energetic young girl. She isn’t able to play contact sports or run great distances, feels the cold but she understands why. When asked ‘why does she have a large scar on her chest’, she confidently says ‘when I was born, my heart didn’t work properly, so they fixed it’.
We appreciate every day with her and thank medical technology to have given her a chance at life.