Archivo de la categoría: Paediatric Cardiology

Sudden death syndrome, Can it be prevented?

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berlin-madre-hijoThe sudden and unexpected loss of heart function is known as sudden death syndrome. Whilst always a tragic event, in the case of the very young it is especially devastating.

A distinction should be made between sudden death triggered by exercise, and sudden death syndrome in infants aged less than one year old. Although the two are rare, we always ask ourselves: How can this have happened to someone who was previously healthy? Could I have done something to prevent it? And in both cases, there are some prevention strategies. Sigue leyendo →

Basic Infant Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

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3829913423_44d944f361_zMayka is painting in her studio. Suddenly, the doorbell rings: it is her neighbour, who is very nervous and scared because her son David, a 12-year-old boy who suffers from heart problems, has collapsed on the ground and she doesn’t know what to do. Mayka goes with her and after a brief assessment she begins to perform basic CPR manoeuvres on him while David’s mother calls 112…

Basic Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is the name given to the manoeuvres that are necessary to effectively replace a person’s breathing and blood circulation functions by ventilation (mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-mouth-and-nose breathing) and cardiac massage respectively. These manoeuvres are intended to keep alive the person who has suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest for any reason, until more expert help comes to replace us and use other procedures to stabilize and take the patient to a hospital. Sigue leyendo →

My child has a murmur in the heart

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Boom, boom. Boom, boom. That is the sound of our heart with each beat.

Boom, boom. Boom, boom. That is what all mothers expect to hear in the 6-8 weeks of gestation, and every time that they go through a checkup during pregnancy. It is the sound of life.

And that is what we pediatricians are lucky to hear every time that we use the phonendoscope to auscultate your child, what indicates us the rhythm of his/her heart.

But, what happens when we find a murmur in the heart as well? What is that? Is it important? Why does the emergency physician tell me that my child has a murmur when the pediatrician has never told me anything about it? Sigue leyendo →