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Megan's Story

Welcome to Megan's site and this is our story. We hope that by sharing our experiances, this will be of a benefit to other parents who may be going thru or facing having a baby born with a congenital defect.

We were overjoyed to discover we were expecting our second child after a seven year gap. I had a fairly uncomplicated pregnancy, other then the usual pregnancy ailments, high blood pressure etc. After a long wait, 10 days overdue and finally being induced I went into labour on the 18th August 1998, after a very quick labour of only a hour and half, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Megan Rose, who weighed in at a healthy 9lb 1oz at 12.59 at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, South Wales, UK.

Everything seemed perfect, we were looking forward to going home, when on the paediatric check it was discovered Megan had a heart murmur. It was then I realised how little I knew, having to ask the doctors what is a heart murmur. After alot of pictures and diagrams were drawn I still was none the wiser. Megan was scanned and it was discoverd that she had a VSD, ASD, PDA and a co-arxtation of her aorta. I will not go into the medical terminalogy, believe me when I say I know everthing there is to be known about these conditions now.

Megan was then transferred to the Special Baby Care Unit at the Royal Gwent Hospital, waitng for the Paediatric Consultant Cardiologist to review her. As he was based at the University Hospital Wales, Cardiff we spent the next 48 hours with Megan waiting for him to come to the Royal Gwent Hospital to hold his clinic, when he planned to see Megan. This was the a very daunting time, as one day we are excited about having a new baby and the following day we are learning the medical jargon concerning our daughters condition and are having to come to terms with a situation that we never imagined. We never expected there could be anything wrong with our baby and there was so many questions as to how?, why?, what did I do that was so wrong to cause these problems with our baby, did my husband blame me ?

I have now learnt that this is a normal reaction and everyone in this position ask the same questions and feels guilty and angry as to WHY US?

Megan was seen by Dr Graham Stuart who advised that our baby needed to be transferred to the Univesity Hospital of Wales, Cardiff as surgery was needed as soon as possible, to correct her co-arctation.

This was the hardest and most painful moment of my life as the saying the bottom fell out our world, I do not think I have every felt so frightened in all my life.

It seemed the next 10 days were the longest of our life, looking back we seemed to live the whole time in a daze, putting a brave face on for our son Joseph, family and friends. We went thru emotions of fear, guilt, anger and sheer fright, dreading every phone call etc.

Megan's operation went ahead with no complications, the hardest thing was seeing her in intensive care, being ventialted and not being able to do anything. The most difficult thing to cope with was not being able to look after our baby, as all our daughter's needs and care was being taken care by a group of strangers.

We must add that these dedicated and proffesional people are the most wonderful, supportive and caring group of strangers, without the support of the doctors and nurses we would of not got thru this ordeal. Their ability to listen to us, eleviate our fears and explain everthying was greatly appreciated. To this group of people we owe so much, not only the care of Megan but the understanding and support they showed to us as a family.

Megan came home 7 days after her operation, it was wonderful, finally to have our daughter home but also very a frightening and difficult time. We were so scared , as the first night home was the first time we had been alone with our beautiful baby, we were not used to being on our own with our daughter, as we had always had the backup of medical team. I wont lie and say it was easy, it was so hard being at home, it is difficult coming home with a healthy baby but trying to cope with a baby after heart surgery was a very worrying experiance. Again with the help and supportive of our family doctor and Health visitor we managed to work thru our fears. The only thing we found that was difficult was the way people were not too sure what to say to us, they were not sure whether to send cards or give presents or even visit. I now understand that people just do not know how to react to this sort of situation. That we know how to cope with the birth of a healthy baby, but having a baby with congenital defect is something we do not come into contact with that often.

I would say to anyone out there who comes across a friend or relative who has a baby with problems, be there for them, try to make life as normal as possible and saying 'I don't know what to say' is not what you really want to hear.

The good news, Megan is now a bouncy, cheeky, eight month old, who weighs in at a nice, healthy 18lbs and at the present everything is going well and looks good for the future, hopefully with the worst behind us.

We would like to thank the dedicated people who looked after us and Megan, who helped us every step and are still there to help us, and to make sure that we are coping well, as it is still very difficult to cope with the memory of what happended, sometimes it still looks just like a bad nightmare, but we feel this whole experiance has made us realise what is important in our lives and that one day we will be stronger, better people for this experiance (this is what everyone tell us)

If you are going thru this or a simular situation, or have already done so, if you just want to talk to someone about your situation, please E-mail, as the one thing we have learnt is, talking about our experiances has helped us, sharing our worries and fears with others in simular situations does help.

Thankyou for taking the time to read our story.

Sara, Robert, Joseph and Megan Prigg

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Contact Information

E-Mail
megan.heart@btinternet.com

Web address
http://www.geocities/EnchantedForest/Mountain/2587/