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By: Tamara Deiro
Watch out Spiderman and Dash - the next super hero has arrived and his name is Garrett Deiro. At least he thinks he's a super hero, and thanks to the great team of doctors and nurses at CHOC, he is now a thriving 3-year-old.
On August 21, 2001 Garrett was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange, located on the same campus as CHOC. The nurse noticed a heart murmur and called our pediatrician, Norah Gutrech, M.D., who immediately ordered an echocardiogram, a test that can help determine the sizes of the heart chambers to see if there is a strain on the heart. Shortly after the test was finished, CHOC pediatric cardiologist Mike Rebolledo, M.D., came into my room and explained to my husband and I that Garrett had a quadruple heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, a complex congenital heart defect that occurs in about two out of very 10,000 live births. Garrett would need surgery.
Our hearts sank. Dr. Rebolledo explained in detail the heart condition, which consists of four components -a ventricular septal defect; a pulmonary stenosis; a right ventricular hypertrophy; and an overriding aorta.. He explained that Garrett needed to be carefully monitored because the oxygen level in his blood could drop and Garrett could turn blue. He also advised against taking Garrett in public places to prevent him from getting sick. They wanted to prolong surgery until Garrett reached 11 pounds.
On January 10, 2002 Garrett went in for surgery. We had four and a half months to get ready for this day. The surgical staff, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Richard Gates, Dr. Mike Rebolledo, and cardiac clinical nurse specialist Patty Sheehan, R.N., were among the wonderful team at the CHOC Heart Institute who came into our room prior to surgery and explained what was going to happen. They helped ease our tension and calm our fears. Though we knew Garrett was in excellent hands, handing him off into the arms of the surgical staff was the hardest thing my husband and I have ever done.
The surgery went extremely well and Garrett recovered in the hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for about a week. There, we had the best team of people taking care of Garrett and us. Shannon, Karen, Lorinne, Bethany and Matt were wonderful cardiac nurses. They were skilled in their job both medically and emotionally. Dr. Rebolledo and his staff kept us informed of Garrett?s progress throughout the week. Of course, we were thrilled when we finally got to take our son home.
We enjoyed our son at home, until a check-up with Dr. Rebolledo in September 2002. He was concerned by what he heard with his stethescope and ordered an angiogram be performed on Garrett. That night, we received a call at home telling us that Garrett required surgery again. The muscle around his heart valve was causing a problem.
Being older and more active ,Garrett was not an easy patient following his second surgery. For example, he insisted on sleeping on his stomach, which wasn't possible because of the chest tube, wires, etc . The nurses were patient with him, and were finally able to get him content to lie on his back. Just like his first surgery, Garrett recovered in about a week, at which time we got to take him home.
It's been almost three years since Garrett's last surgery. We continue to see Dr. Rebolledo for regular check-ups. Garrett may require a heart valve replacement sometime in the next 5 - 10yrs, but with skilled people like Dr. Rebolledo and Dr. Gates taking care of him, Garrett will go on running, jumping and keeping us on our toes!
Our lives have changed due to Garrett's heart condition and surgeries. We look at things entirely different now. We are very fortunate to have had so many people there for us throughout all of those long months of waiting and watching prior to surgery. And during our weeks at the hospital, we were so grateful to a new group we call our ?Angels," CHOC's doctors and nurses. Thank you everyone! We only hope we can help others through their tough times too.
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