http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703932904574511950460773832.html
Doctors at Children's Hospital Boston said they successfully implanted an experimental heart valve in a 4-year-old boy with a congenital heart defect to relieve potentially fatal complications caused by the H1N1 flu virus.
The child, Brandon Beauchemin of Rhode Island, was born with a defect called Tetralogy of Fallot that resulted in, among other problems, a blockage in the pulmonary artery that carries blood from the heart to the lungs. He underwent three open-heart surgeries, including one to replace a valve that regulates the flow of blood from the heart's right ventricle to the lungs, before he was a year old.
His heart was working well before he was admitted to a hospital in Rhode Island last week with flu symptoms. But by the time he was transferred to Children's in Boston, pressures had built to such levels in his heart and lungs that his replacement valve had failed and his heart was barely functioning, said Peter Laussen, chief of cardiovascular critical care at Children's.
The boy was too sick for another open-heart operation, so doctors decided to use an experimental valve that is being tested on older children and young adults. It is threaded into the heart via a catheter without requiring major surgery.
The procedure was performed at the hospital last Friday. "Patients who have underlying heart disease like Brandon [who get the flu] can rapidly deteriorate," Dr. Laussen said. "The need for these children to get vaccinated is very high because the cost to them is substantial. Until we put this valve in, we were very concerned he wasn't going to be able to survive.".......
Doctors at Children's Hospital Boston said they successfully implanted an experimental heart valve in a 4-year-old boy with a congenital heart defect to relieve potentially fatal complications caused by the H1N1 flu virus.
The child, Brandon Beauchemin of Rhode Island, was born with a defect called Tetralogy of Fallot that resulted in, among other problems, a blockage in the pulmonary artery that carries blood from the heart to the lungs. He underwent three open-heart surgeries, including one to replace a valve that regulates the flow of blood from the heart's right ventricle to the lungs, before he was a year old.
His heart was working well before he was admitted to a hospital in Rhode Island last week with flu symptoms. But by the time he was transferred to Children's in Boston, pressures had built to such levels in his heart and lungs that his replacement valve had failed and his heart was barely functioning, said Peter Laussen, chief of cardiovascular critical care at Children's.
The boy was too sick for another open-heart operation, so doctors decided to use an experimental valve that is being tested on older children and young adults. It is threaded into the heart via a catheter without requiring major surgery.
The procedure was performed at the hospital last Friday. "Patients who have underlying heart disease like Brandon [who get the flu] can rapidly deteriorate," Dr. Laussen said. "The need for these children to get vaccinated is very high because the cost to them is substantial. Until we put this valve in, we were very concerned he wasn't going to be able to survive.".......
