Family hopes baby girl who underwent open-heart surgery will be home for Christmas

Helen Kelleher speaks to the mother of a six-month old child who successfully underwent open-heart surgery

Ivana Russell and her baby girl Lillyanna Heaphy in the children's ward at Cork University Hospital before travelling to Dublin for her heart operation. Picture: Larry Cummins

Approximately 500 children require open-heart surgery in Ireland each year — over half in the first year of their life and some as young as just two days old. Paediatrician with Expertise in Cardiology at Cork University Hospital, Dr Daragh Finn says congenital cardiac disease is the most common type of birth defect affecting almost 100 babies born in Ireland each year — the most common being ‘holes in the heart’ or ‘problems with the valve’. 

There are genetic components to these conditions and the risk is increased in syndromes like Down Syndrome or Digeorge Syndrome but in most cases, he says, it is unknown why they occur. While heart defects can be detected during pregnancy some are not found until a baby is born which was the case for six-month-old Lilyanna Heaphy who was born at CUMH on April 29 this year. Following her delivery, parents Ivana Russell (26) and Shane Heaphy (27) were told Lilyanna had been diagnosed with Down syndrome and there was a 50% chance she would require open-heart surgery — a diagnosis which was confirmed following echocardiography (ultrasound of the heart) later that same day.