Heart for a fight
DOCTORS gave Joshua McGivern less than a week to live when he was born with half a heart.
Now the brave tot is eight months old and defying the odds despite being diagnosed with rare condition hypoplastic left heart syndrome. There’s no doubting his spirit.
A BABY born with only half a functioning heart has defied doctors who didn’t think he’d survive a week.
Eight-month-old Joshua McGivern has bravely battled hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) since the day he was born.
His mum Elaine said: “Joshua is meeting all his developmental milestones and appears just like any other boy of his age – but inside, his heart is fighting a big battle every day.
“He has such a love for life. He is very inquisitive and dotes on his big sister Mirrin. He is very much a smiler and loves attention.”
Joshua’s life-limiting condition was spotted when Elaine was 21 weeks pregnant. His parents were given three options – terminating the pregnancy, palliative care for the few days he’d survive after birth without intervention, or three open-heart surgeries with little chance of success.
Elaine, 36, and Paul, 37 – who emigrated from Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, to Queensland in Australia in 2015 with Mirrin, who is now six – chose the final option.
Little fighter Joshua has had two surgeries so far.
Physiotherapist Elaine found out she was pregnant while on her way to see comic Kevin Bridges on tour in Brisbane in 2017.
But about 21 weeks into the pregnancy, her and youth worker Paul’s dream life Down Under turned into a nightmare when they were told their baby would be born with HLHS.
Elaine told the Record: “It was a very surreal day, waking up full of excitement at getting to see your baby on the screen for the first time to then having that gut-wrenching and heartbreaking feeling that your whole world has been turned upside down.
“I was so scared knowing that I’d have to watch my baby suffer.”
HLHS is a rare combination of cardiac defects where the left side of the heart and surrounding structures are so severely underdeveloped that they are unable to function. Essentially, Joshua only has half a beating heart.
At six days old, the tot’s first surgery involved his body being put into a state of hibernation and cooled to 20C. The odds were stacked against the little boy but he pulled through, despite only being given a 25 per cent chance of survival.
At 18 weeks, he had the second operation out of the planned three to rebuild parts of his heart.
Elaine said: “There will come a day when the right side of Joshua’s heart won’t be able to keep up with the left. He may need a heart transplant but that would come with its own set of problems.
“There are people with HLHS who have their original hearts till they reach their late 30s.”
Elaine, who plans to run the Gold Coast marathon in July to raise funds for charity Heartkids, added: “We just hope there will be a breakthrough for him in the future.”