Full Credit Must Go to Hospital

Northern Territory News

I AM writing with regards to the article “Our Babies Beat Odds” in the Sunday Territorian on April 21. I am Casey’s mother and I would like to say in this letter what was totally missed in our story.

The main reason we decided to do this story was to give all the credit for our babies being alive to the doctors and nurses of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. We also wanted to make people aware of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and to let people know that if they or someone they know is diagnosed with HLHS and they choose to operate, it can be done here in Australia.

The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne has a comparable success rate for these operations to anywhere in the world, especially America, and surgeon Dr Christian Brizzard is one of the best in the world, particularly for this heart problem.
We also wanted to thank the staff of the NT Imaging Services and Dr Charles Kilburn of Darwin Paediatrics for diagnosing our babies as it seems this is quite difficult to do.

If anyone is interested in finding out more information about this congenital heart defect, you can visit www.heartsofhope.iinet.net.au and read our full stories and many more. There are also links to the RCH for full explanation of the defect. We are also happy to talk to families who wish to know more.