‘He was just a superstar’
13-YEAR-OLD DIES FROM COMPLICATIONS AFTER HIS SEVENTH HEART OPERATION
A TEENAGE boy who underwent seven open-heart operations has died from surgery complications.
Ryan Waites was born with a complex conditional heart defect. His mam Lisa Waites discovered he had pulmonary atresia, as well as a hole in his heart, just days after he arrived in the world.
Earlier this year, Ryan, 13, from Dipton, County Durham, developed an infection and had to undergo his seventh open heart operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. But he did not recover from the surgery and passed away two days later.
Lisa, 44, said: “It was a pleasure to have him call me mam and for him to be my son. He was just a superstar!
“He was always happy. He was very cheeky and very stubborn. The nurses at the Freeman said he was the most stubborn child they’d ever met but they loved him to bits. He had his own little personality.
“Ryan was born with complex conditional heart defect and he’s undergone numerous surgeries to try to correct it.
“He fought really hard, he had seven operations. Every single one of them was a really difficult surgery to recover from. It was really hard to see him battling through that.”
Ryan’s blood could not flow between the pumping chamber in his heart to the lungs to pick up oxygen, due to the pulmonary atresia which he was born with. It led to him having a conduit – a tube to direct blood flow – inserted into his body.
His condition also caused him to go into cardiac arrest in the past, and meant that he suffered from a development delay.
Lisa said: “Finding out he had the heart condition was just devastating. We just kept on plodding on through it really. He was treated like any other child, we didn’t want him to be treated any different.
“His first surgery was at five weeks old and he’s had them all through his life. He didn’t have any arteries connecting blood flow to his lungs so they had to create one – that’s the conduit.
“During his surgery, five years ago, he contracted an infection in his sternum which meant he had to have his surgery redone. He recovered from that, he came home and he was fine up until the end of November.”
At the end of last year, Ryan’s wound began to break down again and Lisa feared that he may have developed another infection.
Ryan, who attended Villa Real
school in Consett, County Durham, went back to the Freeman Hospital for a CT scan and there was found to be an infection in his conduit.
Lisa said: “We expected it to be a sternum infection again. He went into hospital in January this year for a CT scan and and there was an infection going into his conduit. We tried to do antibiotics and IV but they didn’t work.
“They took him to surgery on February 22. Unfortunately the surgery was really difficult. It was Ryan’s seventh open heart surgery and he had a lot of scar tissue. He just couldn’t recover from it.
“He passed away on the 24th, in
the early hours of the morning. I knew his surgery was going to be difficult but I didn’t think we were quite down the route where he possibly could have lost his life.
“It was so quick, there’s been a lot of things to do and I don’t think I’ve had the chance to sit and think about it too much. I have had a lot of support. The Freeman are still in touch and that’s lovely. They’ve known him from being a baby.”
An inquest into his death was held at Newcastle Coroner’s Court in Newcastle on Friday. A coroner concluded that he died of complications of necessary surgical treatment for congenital disease.
Lisa added: “That’s what I was expecting. It was a complicated heart condition. We knew that he had had a lot of surgery and it was going to be difficult. The Freeman were absolutely amazing. I can’t thank them enough for everything they have done for him. They’ve fought hard for him.”
We previously reported in 2017 how Ryan was nominated for the Child of Courage prize in our Chronicle Champions awards, in recognition of how he’d coped with everything life had thrown at him.
Lisa said that Ryan’s uncle Wayne and his cousin Reece will be taking on the Great North Run this year in his memory.