Doctors at Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Hospital have given potentially life-saving treatment to a baby diagnosed with four abnormalities of the heart.
Ben Blinkhoff was required to have the surgery at four months old after being diagnosed with tetralogy of Fallot.
Paediatric cardiologist Dr Scott Fox said he hoped to delay the surgery until his heart had grown, but doctors had to change their plans.
“We were forced into doing his earlier than expected because of a narrowing that developed in one of the blood vessels going to his lungs,” he said.
“Though the shunt was working well, once the blood got into his lungs it couldn’t get evenly distributed to both lung fields.
“So he was really trying to oxygenate on just one lung.”
The four-month-old has been in Mater Children’s intensive care unit for 12 days and will return home in two weeks.
Ben’s mother Jo Blinkhoff says she is excited to bring him home to his four sisters.
“I’m just so looking forward to getting him home,” she said.
“Every day I just look at his empty little cot and think he’ll be back there one day and think we’ll have a normal life again soon.”
Ms Blinkhoff is sharing her story as part of Miracle Babies Month, a national campaign to highlight the struggles faced by premature and sick newborns and their families.
Every year the Mater Hospital provides intensive specialist care to 2,800 premature and seriously ill babies from Queensland and northern New South Wales.
The hospital is hoping this weekend’s Little Miracles 5 kilometre fun run will help to raise money for the cause.
The Mater Foundation’s director of business development, Paul Reis, says money from the run goes directly towards the Neonatal Critical Care Unit.
“We provide that funding pot for situations that require that critical care as well as ongoing treatment,” he said.
“So for us it’s about giving little miracles the best opportunity.”