Tetrology of Fallot - 1) overriding aorta, 2) right ventricular hypertrophy3) Ventricular septal defect (VSD) 4) pulmonary stenosis (in my son's case Pulmonary atresia absent pulmonary artery). It was my first project as a second year medical student in Pathology.

Never in my wildest dreams would my own child be born with this condition. Of course my wife and I tried to be careful, we had chromosone checked, two fetal Level two ultrasounds at another hospital (no one suggested a fetal echo), and because my wife was a gestational diabetic, she took her insulin and checked her blood sugars 4 times a day. The only concern was that his feet were small compared to the rest of his body.

The first surpass at 37 weeks gestation was that there was no more amniotic fluid so that my wife needed a c-section. My son was "born" kicking and crying birth weight only 5 lbs. My colleague was at the delivery and said that everything looked fine, except for he was a "peanut" and his apgars were 7 and 9. (I thought that he did look kind of blue, but what did I know, I was only the father.)

At 8 am the next morning, my colleague came into our room and suggested that my son had a heart problem, since his oxygenation was low. It really was only 20%, normally it should be 95-100%.

Anyway here I am at Children's hospital, two weeks after his successful surgery. He already has had three chest tubes, and as I am writing this they believe that his v-tach today was due to dig toxicity. I know way too much.

Good luck to everybody. I hope I have gained some sensitivity for my patients in my general Pediatric practice. Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts. When my son is old enough to type, I hope he can add to this experience.