Rare procedure saves baby boy

Pig and cow tissue mend heart

Three-year-old Matthew Blackwell has been through two open heart surgeries in his short life.

Because of a congenital heart defect pig and cow tissue is holding the Takapuna boy’s heart together.

His right ventricle and aorta were patched up when he was five days old using a mixture of animal and human donor tissue.

The Norwood/Rastelli procedure had only been performed a few times in the world.

If he had been born two years earlier, doctors would have had to let him die.

Mum Liz Blackwell remembers those days well, though they seem far removed from the life she lives now with an energetic, and for the most part healthy, son.

"I was so scared. I’ll never forget hearing my husband on the other end of the phone telling me the news.

"Basically his heart was a mess. It was like a jigsaw puzzle that hadn’t been put together properly and with some of the vital pieces missing."

Doctors diagnosed Matthew’s heart defect a day after his birth when his skin started taking on a blue tinge.

They kept him alive in intensive care for five days before performing the risky and rare eight-hour surgery.

It was such a success that Matthew was back home three-and-a-half weeks after his operation.

He recently had another six-hour surgery to replace some of the human donor tissue patching his heart.

Though more surgery is on the horizon, he is now able to go to to kindy, run around and play like any other three-year-old.

It has been a difficult but rewarding journey dealing with Matthew’s ongoing illness, says Mrs Blackwell.

In the early days, she would get her husband to check on him every morning because she feared finding him dead.

Help from friends, her family and support organisation Heart Children New Zealand got her through those times.

Now she is simply thankful for every day she gets to spend with her son.

"Each day is a blessing. Every day I look at him and think ‘wow’."

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in young children in New Zea-
land, killing more than twice that of childhood cancers.

Every week, 12 babies are born with a heart defect.

- © Fairfax NZ News