Thursday, 16 January 2014

Good health: a family's 'Heart Tale'

Advances in the treatment and management of congenital heart disease have been very important for children with Down syndrome, in whom the incidence of congenital heart disease is around 50% - much higher than in the population as a whole.  This is a well told story about a child with congenital heart disease growing into healthy adolescence, a prenatal diagnosis and the impact of seeing other people with Down syndrome doing the most ordinary of things:

Heart Tale
Amy Dietrich Hernandez, Concave Bed, Concave Life, 14th January 2014
... We sat across the desk from my normally jovial OB and heard the words "heart problems" and "closely associated with Down syndrome" for the first time. He looked a bit grim and was apologetic almost to the point of tears. I was trying to wrap my brain around what Down syndrome had to do with my baby's heart. Of course, I would learn that Down syndrome and heart issues were very closely linked, but until that moment I had lived in a bubble of blissful ignorance ...

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