By Howard Koplowitz
A 6-year-old Trinidadian girl has the chance for a normal life after she successfully underwent surgery to repair her defective heart at Schneider Children's Hospital.
Chantal Waldron was born with tricuspid atresia, a condition in which a valve enabling blood to flow through the upper and lower right chambers of the heart is absent.
In healthy hearts, blood flows through the chamber to an artery in the lung. But in Chantal's case, the blood has nowhere to go, causing the 6-year-old to go through bouts of exhaustion and difficulty breathing due to a lack of oxygen in the blood.
She was first operated on at Schneider in 2005 during a procedure called a bidirectional Glenn, which diverted blood flow from the upper half of her body directly to an artery in the lung.
Doctors performed a second operation June 18 to divert blood from the lower part of her body to the lung by placing a Goretex tube in Chantal's heart.
"This would give her a normal oxygen level in the bloodstream," said Dr. Vincent Parnell, Schneider's chairman of pediatrics and chief of pediatric cardiology.
Without the operation, Chantal could have lacked blood in her organs and been vulnerable to infections. Her prognosis would have been bleak.
"Most patients with tricuspid atresia will not survive childhood," Parnell said, noting that 50 percent of babies born with the condition die before they are a year old.
"In general, it's a very lethal condition, but there are rare exceptions," he said.
Chantal and her mother, Marcelle Baptiste, thanked her doctors during a press conference July 3 at the hospital.
"It was like a miracle took place for my daughter," Baptiste said. "I used to have a daughter that would turn blue" from lack of oxygen. "It was very heartbreaking for us as a family to see this happen to Chantal."
Baptiste said her daughter has been playing with dolls and trucks and has more energy since the operation.
The 6-year-old and her mother were brought to Schneider through Rotary Gift of Life International — a Long Island-based non-profit that sent volunteers and a medical team to Trinidad to help a child in dire health get treatment.
While there was no obstacle to getting Chantal to Schneider for the 2005 operation, she and her mother encountered problems for the June procedure.
Doctors in Trinidad did not release the girl's medical records in time for her to be flown here for the operation. Baptiste told her story to the country's media and the doctors then released the information and a new operation date was set.
"I said I had to do something, so I pressed on," she said.
Chantal and her mother were scheduled to go back to Trinidad within the week.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
