Posted on 02/15/2013 9:39:45 AM PST by Former Fetus
When Claire Ives was seven months pregnant with her third child, she used a handheld device to listen to her unborn son's heartbeat. As she turned the machine on, she thought something had malfunctioned.
"I thought I wasn't listening right or something," Ives, a nurse in London, told ABCNews.com. "I didn't believe his [heart] rate could be that fast."
Ives' son had a heart rate of about 300 beats per minute, nearly double the normal 160.
After doctors were alerted to the baby's elevated heart rate, Ives delivered her son, Edward Ives, five weeks early via emergency cesarean at the University College London Hospital.
Edward Ives was born with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and was given a five percent chance of survival. SVT is caused by improper electrical impulses in the heart that leads to an irregular rapid heartbeat heart, which then can lead to heart failure or affect internal organs. When the heart beats too quickly, it can't fill up properly and then distribute blood to vital organs correctly.
"I just thought he was going to die," said Ives.
>>SNIP<<
Now a healthy six-month old, Edward has an excellent prognosis and is unlikely to need further hospitalizations for SVT although he is being closely monitored to see if the irregular heartbeat returns.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
My daughter had SVT when she was a month old.
After a couple of Army doctors did a three stooges impersonation trying to diagnose why she wasn’t eating and was dehydrated (looking suspiciously at us of course), through a stroke of luck we stumbled onto one military doctor who knew what to do. She put ice on her face to stop the SVT episode, and put her on a Blackhawk to the nearest NICU. This doctor was a life saver and a miracle.
We had to give her medicine for a year and a half (not easy with a newborn), and monitor her heartbeat twice a day.
I hope she’s doing fine now!
Praise the Lord indeed!
I get panic attacks from time to time an old old dr taught me that trick to bring my heart rate down works to this day
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.