Sloane's story

Sloane is never short on jokes.  At 3 years old, this girl delivers each pun and riddle with a wry smile and plenty of energy.

Not too long ago, however, Sloane’s life had a much more serious slant.

She was an infant – less than a year old – when she would “turn maroon,” her mother, Denise, says.  While there weren’t any other signs of a significant problem, her pediatrician ordered an echocardiogram, an ultrasound that allows doctors to view the heart’s functions.  With the help of telechocardiography equipment, Sloane had the test done at her local hospital, and the results were reviewed immediately by a pediatric cardiologist at Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital.

“The test showed that she had a hole in her heart and an enlarged coronary sinus due to two superior vena cavae,” Denise remembers.  The defect posed no immediate risks, so doctors decided to monitor her situation with follow-up visits.

At Sloane’s two-year check just last summer, however, Janet Weis Children’s Hospital pediatric cardiologist Dr. Fareed Ahmad listened to her heart and had concerns that her heart was not performing as well as it should.

“He said, ‘that sounds pretty good,’” Denise remembers.  “I thought, ‘what do you mean pretty good?’”

Another echocardiogram was performed during that visit to the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Specialty Services office in Altoona.  The test showed that the right side of Sloane’s heart was significantly enlarged, and she was scheduled for a cardiac MRI, which would give a more definitive view of her heart, at Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville. 

That test confirmed Dr. Ahmad’s concerns.

“Sloane was suffering from an abnormal draining of her lung veins,” explains pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Kamal Pourmoghadam.  “We needed to correct the ‘plumbing’ of her heart, which can be a complex undertaking.”

The defect is uncommon, he says, making up only about one to three percent of congenital heart diseases in children.  Surgery is the only option for correcting it.

“We met with Dr. Pourmoghadam, who answered a lot of questions for us,” Denise says.  “He explained that this wasn’t necessarily life-or-death right now, but it needed done sooner rather than later.”

The open-heart surgery was, indeed, scheduled for “sooner.”  Only a month after that test, Sloane and her parents were back in the Danville area, visiting an amusement park and preparing for the next day’s surgery.

“The scariest part of this was, I looked at my daughter and she was running around, healthy,” Denise says.  “I had seen the test results, and knew what was happening inside and what would happen if she didn’t have surgery – but on the outside, she looked healthy.”

The surgery took longer than expected, but offered a positive result afterward.  The defect was corrected.

For the next couple days, Sloane recuperated and was able to keep her mind occupied with the Children’s Miracle Network-funded DVD players in her room.  But it wasn’t long before she was walking up and down the hallways, telling jokes.

By the fourth day, Sloane was doing so well that she was able to go home.

During a routine follow-up visit about a month later, however, Sloane appeared swollen around her head and neck, and even at rest, her face was flush – as if she had just been playing hard. 

Janet Weis Children’s Hospital specialists determined that a second procedure, the placement of two stents, would be necessary.

“Because the blood drainage in her upper body was rearranged as well, we felt that we needed to enlarge the area that provided communication between the veins,” Dr. Pourmoghadam says.  “She underwent a cardiac catheterization for the stent placement to accomplish this.”

The procedure was completed in the state-of-the-art bi-plane catheterization lab, a Children’s Miracle Network-funded project.

Soon, Sloane was healing again and was able to go home, and she has continued to grow healthier and stronger.  Today, her parents – and her older brother and sister – exercise caution with her, but she faces no restrictions.

“We really were blessed that Geisinger is here, and we didn’t have to travel to a larger city,” Denise says, adding that Children’s Miracle Network-funded equipment – including both the portable echocardiography equipment at the Altoona outreach office and the DVD players in the children’s hospital room – directly helped Sloane.

“You just never know what it’s like until you’re in the situation where you’re trusting someone with your child’s life,” Denise says.  “I definitely found out how much I can handle.”

As for Sloane, she’ll shyly show her “zipper” scar from the ordeal – but she’s sure to follow up with a new joke.

Sloane's story will be featured during the 2008 Celebration broadcast May 31 and June 1 on WTAJ.