Little Vivian Andorf had her first heart surgery when she was just two hours old. "She's missing one chamber of her heart… Veins going from her lungs to her heart they are progressively narrow," Vivian's Mom, Margaret Andorf said.
So far, Vivian's had seven surgeries and six catherizations. "I've seen the caths and they're just these big long tubes and you just can't imagine how they get in," Andorf said.
"Most of the equipment that we use was designed and developed and produced for adults," Doctor Alex Golden, MD, Pediatric Cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital said.
Imagine a wire the size of the cord on your headphones, snaking through a tiny baby. Using adult-sized catheters, doctors can damage access vessels in the groin and cause a blockage. Doctor Alex Golden is the first Pediatric Cardiologist in the US to use a new approved cath for kids.
"Having a cath that is 20 percent smaller than the smallest one we were using previously, I think, that's a great benefit," Doctor Golden explained.
"It feels like we have so much hope," Andorf said. Hope that a newborn given just a five percent chance of survival will beat the odds.
Vivian has one more surgery planned for this year. The new catheter is the first in the US to be approved specifically for children.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Dunlop
Media Relations Associate
Corporate Communications Cleveland Clinic
(216) 445-1991
DUNLOPE@ccf.org
