Aortic Stenosis: Freddie’s story

Freddie’s heart condition, aortic stenosis, was diagnosed by chance at his postnatal check. His mum, Gemma, says he has never showed any signs of having a heart defect. This is their story:

Freddie was born a healthy, beautiful baby boy and showed no signs of any heart defect. He still didn’t show any signs all the way through his heart journey, which was actually a very worrying part of his condition.

At his postnatal check, a student nurse thought she heard a heart murmur, so Freddie was checked again by a doctor in the next room. The doctor said he couldn’t hear a murmur, but referred him to be checked anyway. They told me it was nothing to worry about and said most babies grow out of a heart murmur.

We just enjoyed our happy, cheeky baby until, six months later, I received a letter to take him for a heart scan to check the murmur had gone. That was when all hell broke loose and they diagnosed Freddie with severe aortic stenosis. His heart was enlarged by 70% where it had been working so hard.

Freddie underwent balloon dilation in the hope this would open his valve enough to let the blood flow and ease the pressure on his heart. Unfortunately, this only worked for 8 weeks.

Freddie was then booked in to have his valve reconstructed or a Ross procedure. He was admitted to hospital on the 19th April 2021 and home by the 23rd. I couldn’t believe how quickly he recovered!

He is our beautiful heart warrior and we couldn’t be prouder!

Find out more about different types of congenital heart defects here.