Half-a-heart tot must learn to walk & talk again .. after every surgery
Toddler has undergone five life-saving operations since birth
A TODDLER born with half a heart has had to re-learn how to walk, talk and eat after undergoing five lifesaving surgeries.
Charlie O’Brien, three, has had two open-heart surgeries, two cardiac catheter surgeries and an operation to reconstruct his airways after being born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.
The condition means he has spent a large amount of his life in hospital, undergoing his first open heart surgery he was just three days old.
Mum Sara, 30, told the Record: “With every surgery, his recovery is slower and he has to learn how to do everything again.
“He had reconstructive surgery on his airways in July and that was the worst he has been. He couldn’t eat or speak or walk so he was a bit like a newborn and had to re-learn everything.”
During both open heart surgeries, Sara and dad Daniel, 31, from Keith near Elgin, faced an anxious eight-hour wait as the tiny tot battled for survival.
Sara said: “Those were very, very tough times. You know at any moment you could lose your child. It’s very hard.”
Charlie’s battles began before he even came into the world, when mum Sara was just 18 weeks pregnant and doctors picked up a heart abnormality in a scan.
The couple, who also have another son, Archie, seven, were told their growing baby would be born with just half a heart and face a lifetime of health complications.
At 38 weeks, Sara travelled to London’s St Thomas Hospital where she was induced and Charlie was born and taken straight to the neo-natal unit at Evelina Children’s Hospital to undergo his first heart surgery.
Sara said: “They stopped his heart and put him on heart and lung bypass but the surgery was a success and he was transferred to paediatric intensive care unit and we were unable to hold him or feed him because he was on a ventilator.
“The tot stayed there for almost four weeks before he was flown back to Glasgow Children’s Hospital and he stayed for another week before eventually going home.
Three months later, Charlie was in London again where he underwent a second open heart surgery which Sara says went “perfectly”. Four months later, he was back after complications left him needing a cardiac catheter.
Sara said: “One of the holes in his heart was starting to clog up, so they had to fix that.”
Since then, the youngster has been in and out of hospital, including undergoing a reconstructive airways operation when he was twoyears-old. For his most recent surgery – another cardiac catheter – Charlie spent his third birthday in hospital.
Sara said: “He loves going to hospital. The staff make such a fuss. Even on his birthday, he was so excited to be going to hospital.”
The tot is now waiting for a date to undergo a third open heart surgery and recently started mainstream nursery, which Sara says he is loving.
She said: “He was so happy to start nursery and has loved every moment so far. he just embraces life.
“I think eventually he will need to have a heart transplant but until then, they try everything else first to try and give him the best quality of life.”