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Children's heart center marks its 10th

by SCOTT ALBRIGHT
C&J 271

Over the last 10 years UNMH Children's Hospital Heart Center has provided greater accessibility and service to patients, family members, doctors and students.

The center celebrated its 10th anniversary in December to commemorate the success and growth it's had over the years.

Nine-year-old Kasey Solomon attended the event with her father Deen Solomon.

"They've treated me really good here," Kasey said.

Kasey suffered from a heart attack in 1999 when she was sent to the center. He said Kasey was given a pacemaker at the center and was then monitored by doctors until 2002. She flew to California the same year to be put on a waiting list at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford to receive a heart transplant. After spending nine months in Stanford to get a match, she returned home to New Mexico with a healthy heart.

Solomon said there was nothing easy about the ordeal, but he appreciated the support from the staff at CHHC.

"They've supported us with anything we need," he said.

After Kasey took off her medical mask to say she preferred being at home, she started crying and buried her face into her dad's shoulder.

Staff members try to make the experience as easy as possible for the children at the heart center.

Echo cardiographer Gavin McCullogh said the children rarely need to be sedated while under care at the center.

He said he plays Barney songs and claps with one hand to entertain the patients while receiving echocardiograms.

"I know 'Finding Nemo' backward and forward," McCullogh said.

McCullogh said an echocardiogram is similar to an ultrasound and can be effective in helping to find problems with patient's hearts.

He demonstrated how the machine worked by using his own heart as an example. He then showed pictures of hearts with different defects for comparison.

The center has approximately 750 heart specimens on hand as learning tools for staff and students. Most of the specimens are human hearts, but McCullogh said they also have a jaguar heart and a beluga whale heart. He explained how the whale heart is similar to a human's by lifting tissue from the heart and pointing out the different ventricles.

Loretta Cordova de Ortega, chair of pediatrics, said patients receive high quality care at CHHC and Stanford.

"The care that they give at Stanford has really been top-notch," she said. "We continue to do responses throughout the state. We go out to the communities as well."

Cordova de Ortega said the center has 14 staff members. She said all but one of the staffers is permanent.

Stan Handmaker said the center has become more centralized for doctors and patients.

"What it has accomplished is a wonderful centralizing," he said. "There is greater accessibility for the patients and the doctors."

Handmaker works with developmental disabilities and has been at UNMH since the heart center was developed. He said the disabilities he works with are directly related to heart problems.

"People who have developmental disabilities very often have cardiac problems as well," he said. "Forty percent of down syndrome patients also have heart problems. It's much more common with people with developmental disabilities."

He said newborns with downs syndrome always have their hearts checked. He said cerebral palsy patients also have a greater chance of having heart problems.

Beth Goens, interim chief of pediatric cardiology, said a fetus can be diagnosed with congenital heart disease as early as 12 weeks into a pregnancy. She said one-fifth of the patients were diagnosed prenatally.

The UNMH heart center and its outreach centers in Gallup, Las Cruces and Rehoboth, N.M., had 1,500 cardiology outpatient visits in 2006.

The center was developed in 1996 by J. Deane Waldman whose vision was to help children and families suffering from heart disease. The center provides services in clinical diagnosis, electrocardiogram interpretation, non-invasive echocardiographic and Doppler studies, cardiac catheterization and interventional therapy.

The center has been affiliated with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford since November 2003 to provide cardiac surgery for UNMH patients.

The affiliation gives patients at UNMH the ability to receive state-of-the-art care that cannot be offered at the Albuquerque center. All of the patients are sent out of state for surgeries.        

Goens said New Mexico didn't have enough people with heart problems to receive the kind of funding needed to provide heart surgeries like those at Stanford. Posters at the center said 37 surgeries were given at LPCH Stanford, four at Denver Children's Hospital, four at Presbyterian, two at the LA Children's Hospital, two at UNMH and one in Boston.

McCullogh said most of the operations done at the UNMH CHHC involved non-invasive treatment such as diagnosis and monitoring. The center also inserts catheters in children's hearts to open valves that restrict blood flow. Stents are used in adults for the same procedure.

The staff at CHHC said the work was fulfilling and they enjoyed seeing patients like Kasey Solomon come back home smiling and well.

Kasey's father said he was grateful for the services his daughter received. He also had a message for the public.

"Make sure you're a donor," he said.

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