MONTREAL — There was a phalanx of doctors, a flood of cameras, and an
auditorium full of hospital staff.
But the star of the show at the Montreal Children's Hospital was a tiny boy,
not yet one year old, whose survival was termed "a small miracle."
Doctors and his parents beamed with pride and love as they described
Panagiotis Baltzis as the youngest — he turns one next week — and smallest
baby in Canada to have made a full recovery after being hooked up to a
heart-lung machine and a device called a Berlin Heart. There are only about
10 such cases known in the world, doctors said.
In the Intensive Care Unit they nicknamed him The Rock.
On Friday, he appeared alert and healthy: When they brought out a birthday
cake, he dipped his finger into the vanilla icing, licked it, and offered
some to his father.
Last December, he was found to be very ill when his parents brought him to
the hospital emergency ward at five months, because he was not gaining
weight.
Medical staff soon noticed his heart was beating too quickly and abnormally
— at 230 beats per minutes — and his parents were told he might have to be
hooked up to heart-lung machine or be given a heart transplant.
"He was already on heavy medication, and we were concerned that he might die
imminently," said cardiologist Charles Rohlicek, among the first to examine
the baby.
On Jan. 2, his heart deteriorated and its rhythm was in the lethal zone.
The parents were given two options, said Dr. Sam Shemie, of the pediatric
intensive care unit: "Either let the little guy go, or we put him on an
advanced, extra-corporal life-support system."
There was no time to spare and the parents — Athanasios Baltzis and Nadia
Valerio — were given five minutes to decide.
The parents were in tears as they described that fateful moment.
"I fell to my knees," Baltzis said.
But he also had faith, never believing his son would accept someone else's
heart.
"He was always a fighter."
The baby was hooked up to a complex heart-and-lung machine called ECMO,
which circulates blood outside the body, giving the blood oxygen. The
survival rate is about 60 per cent for kids with severe heart failure who
are connected to the machine.
After seven days, to avoid inevitable complications, it was decided to
remove him from the machine and put him on a blood pump, known as the Berlin
Heart.
This could lead to a heart transplant, or no external support, in the hope
the heart would function independently.
"We only had one chance to get this right," said Renzo Cecere, director of
the McGill University Health Centre's Heart Failure and Thoracic Transplant
Program.
The miracle was that, deprived of external support, the heart began to
function on its own.
"In the subsequent weeks and months, the child made a wonderful recovery,
was discharged from hospital, and returned home to enjoy a very normal
environment."
He's not out of the woods yet, and will need intervention in a few years to
correct problems in the heart's electrical system.
But, otherwise, he's behaving normally, said Rohlicek.
"To have this child come back to my clinic and say, 'Mama,' is, I think, a
miracle."
Source : Canwest News Service
