Pulse Ox Test

With medical and technological advancements, infant and child mortality rates have decreased over the years, but congenital heart disease is still a leading contributor to these mortality rates. Children with congenital heart disease undergo more severe and rapid medical treatment putting their parents through even harder times. These issues are worth exploring because congenital heart disease is an ongoing illness that has more and more relevant research being done on it. In the United States of America, an increasing number of children are being born and diagnosed with congenital heart disease (CHD) due to medical advancements. This illness not only impacts the infant’s life long term, but it also affects the parent’s well-being (Tak, & McCubbin, 2002). It has

Christine Le, an accountant living in Flushing, New York, gave birth to a healthy baby “Nathan” on January 29th, 2010. She found out that she was pregnant with her first child when her period was late. She had the routine prenatal care starting at 12 weeks and delivered at 40 weeks in a hospital with the present of her husband, Robert, and the in-laws. To insure her baby was healthy, Christine underwent several prenatal diagnostic methods like amniocentesis to examine for genetic defects. Another method was ultrasound; its purpose is to assess fetal age, multiple pregnancies, size and shape of the fetus. Christine underwent numerous lab tests to ensure that there are no complications (Berk, pg.43). Lab tests like a complete blood count that screens

Congenital heart disease is a cardiovascular condition resulting from an abnormality in the structure of the heart. The exact time this defect forms is unknown but it is during the fetal development in the womb. Researchers think the defect could be case partially by genetics and medical conditions of the fetus and the parents. If the baby’s mother had rubella, while pregnant or other conditions such as diabetes could have caused the defect. Some medications that were taken by a pregnant mother could also have caused birth defects. An error on chromosome 22 could also have caused the heart defect. Some symptoms that a person may have a congenital heart may not show up until later in life but many children also have the symptoms. Symptoms of a congenital heart defect are abnormal heartbeat, bluish tint to skin, shortness of breath, dizziness or fainting, and swelling of body tissues and organs.

Syndrome. Approximately half of all infants born with Down’s syndrome have a heart defect. Many of these defects have serious implications”

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome is a very serious birth defect. Studies say, “each year approximately… 640 to 1440 infants in the United States are born with HLHS” (Paediatr Child Health,2). Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, also known as HLHS, is a birth defect where the left ventricle of the heart is either underdeveloped or absent. Today, there are heart surgeries that can help children born with HLHS survive longer and sometimes even live long, happy lives. Though, not all children survive HLHS. Many infants die whilst waiting for a donor heart.

Mr. Lisiecki is the founder of the Heart Challenge Swim Association (http://www.heartchallengeswim.org/), and a volunteer of the Mended Hearts Community (http://mendedhearts.org/), dedicated to pediatric congenital heart defects research and awareness. According to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, there are more than 18 congenital heart defects that affect children. Problems with his own heart eventually found him on the operating table of Belling ham’s Dr. Andrew Coletti, who performed corrective surgery and later implanted a defibrillator to insure a steady pulse of which he soon took advantage.

According to the WHO, cardiovascular diseases have been the leading cause of death globally claiming 17 million lives a year, more deaths than all cancer combined (Chiu and Radisic, 2013). Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a preponderance of health problems and its impact is expected to grow further as the population ages. In the UK, NHS spends about £7.74 billion as the expenditure to deal with cardiovascular diseases (Barton et al., 2011). Cardiovascular disease in the form of myocardial infarction has become the principle cause of death in developed countries, accounting for nearly 40% of all deaths (http://www.bhf.org.uk/). Congenital heart defects, which occur in nearly 14 of every 1000 new-born children, is another tragic fact that baffles medical industry (http://www.heart.org/). About 61 million Americans (almost one-fourth of the population) live with cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease, congenital cardiovascular defects, and congestive heart failure.

Critical Congenital Heart Defect (CCHD) is a subgroup of congenital heart defects that normally necessitates surgical intervention or catheterization procedure during the neonatal period (Good, Canale, Goodman, & Yeager, 2015). According to Mahle et al. (2009), although there are measures taken to detect CCHD like prenatal ultrasound and comprehensive newborn physical examination during newborn’s birth hospitalization, there is still a significant percentage of newborns with CCHD that is left undetected and discharged home without being diagnosed. Delay in diagnosis of CCHD increases morbidity and mortality (Mahle et al., 2009). In response to this, Riede et al. (2010) mentioned that the diagnostic gap in CCHD could be bridged by screening newborns using pulse oximetry

The biggest influence of my life has been the Dr. Bill Neches Heart Camp for Kids. Heart Camp is a weeklong summer camp for children who live with Congenital Heart Disease. I have been attending this camp since the age of eight and have worked as a junior counselor the past two years. As I have grown older and learned more about my heart problem, I realized that I wanted to work with children who are faced with similar trauma. By attending Heart Camp, I have had the wonderful opportunity to speak with many nurses who work at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Not many teenagers have the opportunity to have a personal connection with people that save lives every day. By attending Heart Camp, I have met dozens of health professionals that I am

Abigail Goodall, who was born with congenital heart disease died at St Michael’s Hospitals just four days after she was born. It was found out that the caused of her death was due to the catheters that were inserted in the wrong area.

When dealing with a cardiovascular disorder, a child’s heart has to work harder in order for that child to be able to accomplish everyday tasks. Heart disease is not a major cause of death in children, but it is the number one cause of death among adults in the United States. It is silly, and even worse, sad to see a life taken away by a condition that could have been prevented.

Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most prevalent of all birth defects and the leading cause of death in the first year of life, (1) with an annual prevalence ranging from six to twelve affected infants per 1,000 live births. (2)

In many U.S. hospitals today the patient care that women receive during management of labor and delivery doesn’t look very evidenced based. Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring (EFM) is the most common form of intrapartal fetal assessment in the United States. We continue to see widespread use of EFM in low risk pregnancies. Electronic fetal monitoring is standard procedure despite numerous randomized controlled trials that have disproven its validity. It is routinely used, yet does not decrease neonatal morbidity or mortality compared to the use of intermittent auscultation. Intermittent auscultation of the fetal heart rate is an acceptable option for low-risk laboring women, yet it is underutilized in the hospital setting. Several expert organizations have proposed the use of intermittent auscultation as a means of promoting physiologic childbirth. So why do we use continuous EFM in the low risk pregnancy and what does the best evidence support and how can nurses apply the best available evidence to practice? As a patient advocate it is the nurses responsibility to answer these questions and provide the low-risk pregnant woman with current evidence about options for fetal heart rate assessment during labor.

Tayt Andersen is an 8 year old boy from Rigby, Idaho, but he isn’t like all the other little kids in Rigby. Tayt was born without the left side of his heart. And, at just seven years old, he has had nine open-heart surgeries, twenty-four shunt revision surgeries, and three other life-saving surgeries. He has been Life Flighted ten times, flat-lined six times, and has spent more than three-fourths of his life in hospital beds at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Embree)

Discussing potential risk issues associated with using automated blood pressure/pulse machine in relation to contemporary practice.