Blue Babies

Maddie's feet compared to Caden's!!! Blue?!?

"Blue Baby Syndrome" used to be the term for babies born with cyanotic heart disease, like Maddie's. You have probably heard of stories (maybe from your grandparents) that talked of "blue babies" being born and passing away...it's very likely, these kids were born with a cyanotic heart defect and without intervention, the inevitable happened and they died. In these defects, blood pumped to the body has less than the normal amount of oxygen. This causes a condition called cyanosis, which is a blue discoloration of the skin (more purple in my opinion). If cyanosis is mild, it may look like a "ruddy complexion." If it's severe, there's a dark blue discoloration. The degree of cyanosis may vary with age, activity or both. Cynanotic heart defects make up 25% of all CHD's. Here's a few of them: Tetralogy of Fallot, Transposition of the Great Arteries, Tricuspid Atresia, Pulmonary Atresia, Truncus Arteriosus, Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection, and Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Maddie's sats (oxygen saturations) are normally around 80. With activity they drop and at rest, they usually perk up a bit. I notice her look bluer when she's working hard to poop, crawling around lots, after she's cried hard and especially when she's cold. A healthy heart's sats are 100 and hopefully after the final repair, the goal is to get her O2 sats in the 90's. This would give her more energy and will be healthier for her!

So here's a little history...in 1944, the first successful surgery was performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital to relieve the blue baby syndrome. Maddie's first surgery, the BT-Shunt (Blalock/Taussig Shunt) is named after the famous docs who pioneered this operation. Here's a great article written about this first surgery. The HBO movie, Something the Lord Made, documents this important piece of history in pediatric cardiology. I highly recommend watching it!

Click on the picture above to read this article...these poor heart mama's and kids! Without their sacrifice, medicine would not be where it's at today and we're sure grateful for this.