Newborn with rare heart defect survives surgery

“When I was told during pregnancy that my baby’s heart was not healthy, I was overwhelmed with fear,” said the mother of Hong Yi-jun, 1, who was born with a heart no larger than an adult’s thumb. “But the medical team told me, ‘We will fix your baby’s heart, so focus only on giving birth.’ Those words gave me hope.”

Hong was born one month prematurely, weighing just 1.5 kilograms, and was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. In most cases, corrective surgery is performed after four months. His condition, however, deteriorated rapidly. He underwent surgery just eight days after birth and was discharged from the hospital recently.

Seoul Asan Medical Center said on Jan. 15 that a medical team led by Professor Yoon Tae-jin of the pediatric cardiac surgery department successfully carried out a complete repair of Hong’s heart defect in a single operation.

According to the hospital, Hong is the couple’s long-awaited son, born after more than a year of in vitro fertilization treatment when his mother was 45. While still in the womb, he was diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot, a rare congenital heart condition that affects three to four out of every 10,000 newborns. The structural abnormality limits oxygen delivery to the body and can cause cyanosis.

The condition typically requires a highly complex operation in which surgeons open the chest and temporarily stop the heart to reconstruct damaged valves, usually after the infant reaches four months of age. In Hong’s case, however, oxygen levels continued to decline, and he began experiencing episodes of apnea. With his condition worsening, doctors determined that early surgery was unavoidable. In November last year, surgeons successfully completed the procedure on Hong, whose blood vessels were thinner than a needle.

A follow-up echocardiogram confirmed that Hong’s heart was beating steadily. He was discharged on Jan. 5, just 49 days after surgery, weighing a healthy 2.2 kilograms.

Professor Yoon said, “Operating on a 1.5-kilogram infant was a challenge. We decided that fixing the heart completely in a single surgery, avoiding the need for a second operation, was the greatest gift we could give the child.”


방성은 bbang@donga.com