What nobody knew was the seriousness of my condition. I had a very serious condition called Infective Endocarditis. This condition can seriously damage heart valves and is very rare affecting around 20 people in a million in the UK every year. Treatment usually involves using very strong antibiotics which I was given for a week before my condition was eventually confirmed and my doctors realised was very serious.
After nearly a week mummy and daddy were told that I would need yet another operation to replace my Mitral Valve in my heart that had been repaired 6 months earlier. They were told that due to my weak condition and poor health there was a strong possibility that I may die. They were devestated and had to give my doctors permission to carry out the operation.....
I was very sick by now and was asleep a lot. My doctors and nurses looked after me as mummy and daddy waited for my third operation in less than a year. Eventually, on the 9th September, I was taken to the operating theatre and had my new titanium heart valve fitted. The operation took nearly 9 hours and mummy and daddy were waiting for me in my special room when I got back from surgery. My doctors and nurses told mummy and daddy that my operation went well and that the infection had destroyed my mitral valve so a new valve had been fitted.
My recovery from this operation was long and complicated as I was so ill before I had my new heart valve fitted. To complicate matters even more I was now prescribed warfarin which I will need to take for the rest of my life to keep my blood thin. This medicine couldn't be given to me until the antibiotics had left my system though so I was initially put on a medicine called heparin. It took a long 6 weeks before I was finally able to switch to warfarin and finally allowed to be transferred back to my local hospital in November, some 10 weeks after I'd arrived at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
