Richie, 15, battled rheumatic fever and dreams of playing in the NBA
Research may put brakes on life-threatening condition
Ground-breaking research could prevent youngsters such as 15-year-old Richie Takapautolo from living with a life-threatening heart condition.
Seven years ago, Richie was rushed into hospital after falling ill with a high temperature and sore joints.
He spent the night in hospital where he was monitored and discharged the next day with what doctors thought was pneumonia, and given antibiotics to treat the infection.
Two days later, the ambulance was called and Richie returned to Starship children’s hospital.
After a number of tests Richie was diagnosed with rheumatic fever nearly two weeks later.
Not long after that, a heart scan showed he had a severely enlarged heart due to a badly leaking valve, which meant he also had rheumatic heart disease.
Richie underwent immediate
openheart surgery to repair the valve and spent the next seven weeks at Starship.
The teen, who one day hopes to become an NBA basketball player, now requires monthly penicillin injections to keep him alive. His mother Natasha said despite still being able to play basketball, Richie’s speech had suffered since the operation.
“He has been struggling with a stutter and his learning development has started to decline along with his communication.”
His father, also named Richie, said if the teen had been diagnosed early he wouldn’t have needed the operation.
“When we found out, it was too late.”
Each year in New Zealand, up to 200 children are diagnosed with acute rheumatic fever and about 160 die from the disease.
New Zealand is one of the few developed countries yet to eliminate rheumatic heart disease. New University of Auckland research hopes to change that.
Head researcher immunologist Dr Nikki Moreland said at the moment clinicians relied on a set of tests and symptoms to diagnosis rheumatic fever and there was no simple yes or no test.
Her team is looking at blood from children who have rheumatic fever and comparing it with healthy children.
“We are looking for antibody markers that could form the basis of a diagnostic test so doctors could straight away order a test and quickly figure out whether a child has rheumatic fever or not.”