Sarb and Sanddip Basra know from experience how the right medical care can make a big difference for a child. Their 12-year-old daughter, Jeevan, was diagnosed with pulmonary valvular stenosis, a congenital heart condition at just two days old.
After receiving care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and having some time to grow, Jeevan underwent her first open-heart surgery at BC Children’s Hospital at six months old. The procedure was a success but her recovery was not – doctors were unable to wake Jeevan from her medically induced coma and she needed an emergency blood transfusion, as her blood was failing to clot properly after surgery.
Waking up two weeks later, Jeevan began to thrive for the first time in her young life. Doctors confirmed Noonan syndrome, a congenital genetic condition, as the cause of her many health problems.
In March 2014, at 12 years old, Jeevan returned to BC Children’s for another operation – this time, to replace the pulmonary valve in her heart. Jeevan was able to go home after just three days of recovery in the hospital. “My daughter has never been better. I am grateful for how far Jeevan has come and I cherish each day I get to spend with her,” says Sarb.
On November 8, the South Asian community will host a black-tie gala called "A Night of Miracles" to raise much needed funds for BC Children's Hospital.
Jack Mc Master was born with an exceptionally rare condition known as the vein of Galen malformation and has undergone brain surgery twice in his short life. There have only been five or six children diagnosed with this condition at BC Children’s Hospital in the past decade.
“It’s a specific name for a vein in the head that is supposed to change in its development (where the arteries connect into the vein) and these changes didn’t actually finish in Jack’s case,” says Dr. Manraj Heran, whose Interventional Radiology team at BC Children’s diagnosed and treated Jack. The result is too much blood flow in this part of the brain, which starves other tissues in the brain and body of blood and puts excessive strain on the heart.
When he was six months old Jack was the first child to undergo treatment for this condition in BC. Previously, children were flown to Toronto, but the diverse medical experience available to children at the hospital today makes interventional radiology procedures like Jack’s possible in-province.
This operation and the one that followed when Jack was 18 months old were successful and have reduced the pressure on his heart. His father, Grant, recalls his astonishment at how quickly his son bounced back from the second operation: "Jack is now off all medication and is not experiencing developmental delays. He will be monitored by Dr. Heran and BC Children’s cardiologist Dr. Shu Sanatani, to see if his body corrects itself as a result of the treatment he’s received at Children’s, or if he requires more treatments when he is bigger. Either way, their goal remains to cure him of this condition."
In the new BC Children’s Hospital, children undergoing this type of procedure will receive care in “hybrid” procedure rooms within the Special Procedures Suites, which will be named in honour of the South Asian community’s generosity. The hybrid procedure rooms will support conventional surgery as well as image-guided procedures such as interventional radiology.
“Children treated in the Special Procedures Suites will benefit from the larger room size, a greater integration of imaging technology, and the versatility of the procedure rooms,” said Erik Skarsgard, BC Children’s Chief of Surgery. “The result will be even greater patient safety and faster recoveries.”
On November 8, the South Asian community will host a black-tie gala to raise money for BC Children's Hospital. To get involved in A Night of Miracles and learn more about BC Children’s Hospital Foundation please call 604.875.2444 or visit www.bcchf.ca/anom.
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