Louis was born with a Congenital Heart Defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. A little about CHD from the American Heart Association, "Congenital heart defects are structural problems arising from abnormal formation of the heart or major blood vessels. At least 18 distinct types of congenital heart defects are recognized, with many additional anatomic variations. Recent progress in diagnosis and treatment (surgery and heart catheterization) makes it possible to fix most defects, even those once thought to be hopeless."
Louis' defect is called Transposition of the Great Arteries which means the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed. A normal blood pattern carries blood in a cycle: body-heart-lungs-heart-body. When a transposition occurs, the blood pathway is impaired because the two arteries are connecting to the wrong chambers in the heart. Basically his blood flow cycle was stuck; oxygenated blood kept returning to the lungs, instead of being delivered to the body. He also has a Ventricular Septal Defect. This is a hole in the wall between the chambers. These are often very common and close on their own in many cases. In Louis' case, his VSD was rather large and a result of his heart trying to correct his blood flow restrictions.
Louis also had delayed closure of his PDA. This is an unclosed hole in the aorta. I'll refer to American Heart Association for a clearer description, "Before a baby is born, the fetus's blood does not need to go to the lungs to get oxygenated. The ductus arteriosis is a hole that allows the blood to skip the circulation to the lungs. However, when the baby is born, the blood must receive oxygen in the lungs and this hole is supposed to close. If the ductus arteriosis is still open (or patent) the blood may skip this necessary step of circulation. The open hole is called the patent ductus arteriosis."
After a week of careful observation in the NICU, it was discovered that Louis' VSD and his PDA remained open which allowed for proper mixing of oxygenated blood to flow both from the lungs to the body and back through the heart. For this reason, we were able to take him home for three weeks. During this three weeks, he was able to learn to feed/nurse, and was given time to grow and get to know his parents. Though it was scary taking a baby home that needed such a huge medical repair, I do believe those three weeks allowed for Louis to have such a quick and complication-free recovering from his switch procedure.
Louis' was kept under close watch by his cardiologist, with weekly check-ups. After a routine check up we found that Louis' PDA had closed which caused his oxygen saturations to drop dramatically and he had to be admitted into the PICU where he would spend one week awaiting his switch surgery.
Louis' had to be intubated, which is when they put a breathing tube down his esophagus to help his oxygen levels. There was concern that the upper right lobe of his lung was deflated, so he waspro-actively given antibiotics to combat any potential virus and his surgery date was moved an additional week.