Simple test may just save your child's life

Congenital heart defects are the most common birth defect. In the United States, about 40,000 infants are born with a heart defect each year. CHDs account for nearly 30 percent of infant deaths due to birth defects.

Our daughter Christina was born with a congenital heart defect on May 7, 2001. We were blessed to have an excellent nurse who noticed Christina’s color was not normal, and she performed a simple test of her oxygen saturation (as easy as taking your temperature), which led to further testing and shortly thereafter a helicopter flight to a specialist who could perform a lifesaving open heart surgery.

Imagine if our nurse hadn’t performed this simple test and we were sent home. Christina looked absolutely, perfectly, beautiful to me and I had no idea that her little heart was not capable of sustaining her life. We would have gone home, and she could have died before we even knew she had a heart defect, which has tragically happened too many times to other families.

Feb. 7-14 is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week. What I want people to be aware of is that many critical congenital heart defects can be detected using pulse oximetry, a simple bedside test that measures the amount of oxygen in a baby’s blood and the baby’s pulse rate. Low levels of oxygen in the blood can be a sign of CCHD. The test is painless and takes only a few minutes. Screening is done when the baby is 24-48 hours of age. If the baby is found to have low levels of oxygen, their doctor can recommend further testing. This simple test helped save my daughters life.

Please have your newborns tested before they leave the hospital.

KAREN McCLELLAND

Sandpoint