UI Healthcare reported this story.
Margaret “Maggie” Behounek is a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital who connects with her patients and their families on a personal level. That’s because she was once a patient, too.
Immediately after Maggie was born, she was transferred to UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital where doctors discovered she had Shone’s complex, a congenital heart defect resulting in the narrowing of the aorta, which carries blood and nutrients to the rest of the body. Maggie had her first surgery at 11 months old to fix her aorta.
All told, Maggie underwent five major surgeries to fix her
congenital heart defect, and she expects she will need another surgery in the
coming years to fix her pulmonary valve, which carries oxygen-poor blood to the
lungs. Currently, the valve leaks blood during the time the valve should be
closed.
“For my first surgery they fixed the coarctation—narrowing
—and sent me home. I had a valve replacement when I was 4 years old, and I did
okay with that for a while. And then when I was 7 years old, I had to get the
valve replaced again,” Maggie says.
At 16, Maggie’s heart and liver were enlarged, causing heart failure and the need for emergency surgery to replace the aortic valve again. At 21, she had a prosthetic valve put in that should last 10 to 15 years.
“I still have chronic heart failure, which is pretty well controlled with meds. The humidity over the summer makes me feel pretty yucky, but I’m able to live a fairly normal life,” Maggie explains.
Cheers!
Donna
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