3/5/2010 10:14:00 AM Sun exclusive Mom needs $350k for her sick child Kei-Anne, 15 months, is undergoing life-saving heart surgery
* Photo supplied. Little fighter: Fragile Kei-Anne, then six months old, recovers in hospital following her second stage of heart surgery.
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
* It is present at birth and involves several abnormalities of the heart and great blood vessels.
* Four out of every 10,000 babies have HLHS.
* It occurs in the first eight weeks of pregnancy and slightly more often in boys than girls.
* Symptoms are blue skin and lips, heavy breathing and fast heart rate.
* Most of the valves on the left side of the heart are either too small to allow sufficient blood flow or are closed completely.
* HLHS sufferers cannot circulate blood to the other organs and the right ventricle must pump blood to both lungs and the rest of the body, which cannot be sustained for long.
* It can be fatal but life-prolonging surgery can help an infant survive.
* The three-stage reconstructive procedure, which was developed in the early 1980s, makes the child's circulation work with only two of the heart's four chambers.
An unemployed single mom faces a $350,000 medical bill for her daughter's life-saving heart surgery.
Gene-Anne Bean got "the shock of her life" when she discovered how much her daughter's heart condition was going to set her back.
The 39-year-old, who has no health insurance, has now launched a fundraising campaign to help her pay back her debts.
She is busy organising fundraising events and has so far raised about $2,000 through potluck lunches.
Ms Bean's 15-month-old daughter, Kei-Anne Scott-Bean, was airlifted to the Hospital of Sick Children in Toronto just hours after being born.
She was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and has undergone two out of three stages of corrective surgery.
Ms Bean is asking people to dig deep as it is the only way she can pay off the bill.
She said: "I was in shock when I heard about the bill. I can't pay if I haven't got it. If I have to pay back all of this myself I'll never be able to pay for her to go to college.
"It's not going to be easy, we've got a long way to go, but every little helps."
Mom's agony as her baby fights for life
All Gene-Anne Bean could do was hold her seriously ill newborn's hand tightly and pray she would pull through.
Baby Kei-Anne Scott-Bean was being airlifted to hospital for life-saving surgery less than 12 hours after she was born.
Ms Bean did not understand the full extent of her child's critical condition.
The shocked single mom, 39, had simply been told her first born's "insides were made all wrong".
Kei-Anne had been diagnosed with a rare heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The left side of her heart had not developed properly.
Ordeal
Her life was at risk so she was rushed to the Hospital Of Sick Children in Toronto for emergency heart surgery.
Kei-Anne pulled through and now runs around like any other child her age. The determined 15-month-old is known for her non-stop smiling.
But her ordeal is not over - she needs a third and hopefully final operation in about a year. Her family faces a $350,000 medical bill.
Ms Bean said: "It's been hard on us all - it's definitely been an experience. But I'm so glad I've got her and she's doing so well.
"I just want her to grow up into a beautiful young lady and live a healthy life. I want her to outlive me. "
No heart defects were detected during ultrasounds and Kei-Anne was born at the King Edward Memorial VII Hospital on the morning of December 2, 2008.
Ms Bean vividly remembers the doctor telling her the heartbreaking news, "you've got to go away".
By midnight mother and daughter were being airlifted to Toronto.
Ms. Bean, of Roberts Avenue, Devonshire, said: "I didn't know anything was wrong when she was born. It was my first baby, I didn't know what to expect.
"Shortly after giving birth the doctor broke the news to me. Everything happened so quickly, it was extremely overwhelming.
"I was in such shock, I was tired and at a complete loss as to why things were happening. I was just doing what I was told. I kept thinking everything happens for a reason."
Kei-Anne's left ventricle, the lower left-hand chamber of the heart, had not developed.
It should be strong and muscular to receive oxygen-rich blood from the left atrium and pump it to the aorta, which takes the blood to the body. Doctors decided Kei-Anne needed a surgical repair and the process has to be carried out in three stages as her lungs became stronger.
Kei-Anne had her first procedure on December 5 when she was three days old. She was in theatre for seven hours and mom and daughter remained in Canada for seven weeks. A small aorta was rebuilt and connected to the ventricle and bands were put around the lungs to increase blood flow.
Kei-Anne's second stage of surgery was a 14-hour operation on June 18 when she was six months old.
Doctors removed the bands and made a direct connection from the main artery to the lungs.
The final stage of surgery will be done when Kei-Anne is two or three and her lungs have matured. A channel will be made through the heart to direct its flow to the artery.
This will mean there will be no mixing of blood as the deoxygenated blood flows passively to the lungs, and the single ventricle pumps exclusively oxygenated bloods to the body.
Ms Bean and Kei-Anne went to Toronto for check-ups every six months. They will return on March 16.
Ms Bean said: "Her body cannot cope with all the surgery in one go. She has tolerated so much pain in her short life but you would not know it to look at her.
"She is sick and prone to infections but she doesn't look like a sick kid."
Kei-Anne is "active, loud and inquisitive" and known as "the happy baby" because she always has a huge grin on her face.
Healthy
Ms Bean said: "She's developing quite normally, without any problems.
"She's a healthy and very active baby. No one would know she was ill to look at her. You look at her charging around the room like any other child and you wouldn't ever guess."
Ms Bean hopes her daughter is "over the worst" but she is not sure what the future will bring.
She said: "Kei-Anne will probably never be an athlete but she'll hopefully live a relatively normal life.
"She gets winded easily but it doesn't seem to slow her up, she continues doing what she has to do."
Posted: Friday, March 05, 2010
Comment by:
junior burchall
WHERE'S DADDY? i hope that the father is either a) incarcerated or b) dead. those are the only excuses that would justify what appears to be his total noninvolvement in helping to ease his daughter's financial woes.......
