Coarctation of the Aorta – Freddie’s Story
When Freddie was born, everything seemed fine. However, a few days later his mum, Naomi, became concerned something wasn’t quite right and sought medical help. By the time his heart defects were diagnosed, Freddie had gone into heart failure. Here Naomi tells their story:

I took him to see the doctor, who checked him over and reassured me that he was completely fine. However, I wasn’t happy with the diagnosis, so I took him to hospital. By this point he also had a crackly chest.
After lots of blood tests, chest x-rays and multiple phone calls to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the doctors discovered what was wrong with him. A nurse came to tell me that Freddie was in heart failure. He was rushed into the High Dependency Unit and given oxygen and diuretics to drain off the fluid around his heart. They kept him stable until we could get over to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Doctors said he needed emergency surgery, but he could go into cardiac arrest at any point. He went down for surgery and had a PA band fitted as well as a coarctation repair. Freddie spent eight hours in surgery. When he returned from theatre, he went back again pretty quickly because he was desaturating. However, he then recovered well after developing a few wound infections.
Six months later, his coarctation returned and, after a failed cardiac catheter, the cardiologists decided it was best to perform open heart surgery. He went onto a heart and lung bypass for a total of 80 minutes and spent seven hours in surgery. This involved aortic arch reconstruction.

Find out more about Coarctation of the Aorta here.
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