Providing life-saving machines for heart babies

"Brodie loves football and Transformers. He started school in September, which we didn't think we'd see." - Ian, Brodie's dad.

 

Brodie was born with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA), which was detected antenatally. After having surgery at 15 months old, he is now four years old and living a full life.

His dad, Ian, recently shared their story with us in order to spread awareness of congenital heart disease (CHD) and give hope to others at the beginning of their journeys.

Brodie was born on the 8th May 2019. We knew of his congenital heart defect before he was born, as we found out at his 20-week scan on Christmas Eve 2018 and were referred to GOSH before he was born. 

Brodie was pa banded at three weeks of age, as he went into heart failure. The options for him after that were single ventricle or bi-ventricular repair, as they weren’t sure about the size of one of his ventricles.

Brodie had the double switch on the 4th August 2020 when he was 15 months old. He was discharged after 11 days. He now has yearly check-ups and, ultimately, we will just continue like this.

Brodie started school in September, which we didn’t think we’d see.

He’s a well travelled boy, having been to Edinburgh (where I ran a marathon for Tiny Tickers) Dublin, New York and Florida (following me around running). He loves bin lorries and putting out the bins – he was even featured in a local council video! Brodie also loves his football (he trains every Sunday) and Transformers. 

 

How Tiny Tickers helps children like Brodie

• Funding potentially life-saving equipment. Not every heart condition will or can be diagnosed during pregnancy. If newborn babies are given a pulse oximetry test soon after birth, heart defects can be identified. We believe every baby should have the test that could help save their life, so we place pulse oximetry machines in maternity units across the UK.
• Sonographer training. Tiny Tickers is the sole provider of hands-on, hospital based cardiac screening training for sonographers in the UK. This enhances the confidence and skills sonographers need to detect heart defects during pregnancy scans.
• Spreading awareness. Our awareness campaigns inform and empower parents-to-be about their 20-week scan and raise awareness of the five potential signs of a heart defect in newborns.
• Family support. Finding out your baby has a serious heart condition can be a truly devastating experience. We support families through diagnosis and their child’s treatment, with reliable information, signposting and peer support.--

Links:

• More about CCTGA