Baby gets ‘hand made’ heart a day after birth Surgeons ‘rewire’ blood vessels for boy born with half a heart
HE IS the miracle baby boy who enjoyed his first Christmas at home after doctors fitted him with a ‘hand-made’ heart.
Adorable Vinney Holliday was born with half of his heart missing on November 7.
He was diagnosed with Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) while still in the womb and needed openheart surgery just 24 hours after being delivered.
Surgeons at Birmingham Children’s Hospital ‘rewired’ his heart to construct a new aorta to allow the right side of his heart to pump blood round the body.
Vinney, now seven weeks old, recovered so well that he was able to go home to Moseley with parents Claire and Ben to enjoy his first Christmas.
“They made him a hand-made heart,” said Mrs Holliday. “Basically, they rewired it.
“The blood is rerouted so that all the work is done by the right side of the heart.
“To take him home was the best present we could have ever asked for. He was our Christmas miracle.”
Mrs Holliday first became aware there was a problem when a nurse noticed an anomaly during her 20-week scan.
The couple waited an agonising week before they could get a diagnosis from a cardiologist, who said their unborn baby had HLHS, missing half his heart.
“It was horrific,” admits Mrs Holliday. “We were given three options: One, we could have a termination, as there was no knowing how long he would live.
“Two, we could give him palliative care and wait for him to pass.
“Three, we could look into the surgical options, where he would have to have open heart surgery at a few hours old.
“It was heartbreaking to be given those options, but we knew that if he survived the birth, then we would want to go for surgery. The left side of his heart had not developed at all.”
Mrs Holliday’s late brother Mark was born with the same condition 45 years earlier to their parents Elizabeth and Roger Fisher.
But with no treatment for the condition all those years ago, he survived for only a few hours.
After a harrowing pregnancy, baby Vinney was born at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. His proud mother was able have a precious cuddle with her baby, who weighed an impressive 7lbs 2oz.
The little battler was able to breathe on his own for 24 hours in the neonatal ward before he needed to be ventilated.
He was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital for the vital surgery, known as the Norwood Procedure, by surgeon David Barron.
Vinney was in surgery for five hours and spent a week recovering in intensive care.
His parents were told to expect him to spend up to four months in hospital, meaning they would have to spend Christmas by his bedside.
“He was unrecognisable,” recalls Mrs Holliday. “He didn’t look like my baby at all, with all the tubes coming out of him. I almost dropped to the floor.”
But, remarkably, Vinney was able to leave hospital after just three weeks, and was home for Christmas.
“We had absolutely nothing for him, just a small bag of clothes,” says
They made him a hand-made heart... to take him home was the best present we could have ever asked for. He was our Christmas miracle
his mum. “I hadn’t prepared anything because we could have lost him at any moment. We didn’t even have a car seat.”
Before they left the hospital Mr and Mrs Holliday were trained in how to perform CPR on their baby and coached in the warning signs and symptoms to look out for.
Vinney was able to spend his first Christmas at home with his parents, and grandmother and grandfather Elizabeth and Roger, as well as big sister Alanna, aged 13.
He is on medication, and will need to go back in for another operation when he is around five months old.
Mrs Holliday added: “I have to give him medicine with a syringe every few hours, but he’s got crafty and has started spraying it back in my face!
“He is doing well and is now 10lbs 4oz, and has a little warrior scar down the middle of his chest.
“We are grateful for every single day and we look no further than for tomorrow.”
For more information, visit Little Hearts Matter at www.lhm.org.uk.
Claire Holliday