Old Hospital - New Hospital

Congenital heart disease is one of the most common types of birth defect and in the UK it is estimated to affect around 9 in every 1,000 births or slightly just under 1%.
(Source: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Congenital-heart-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx).

However it is estimated 75% of people with 22q11.2 DS have some form of congenital heart defect and the majority of cases of 22q are diagnosed by paediatric cardiologists.  Cardiac conditions associated with 22q 11.2DS include

VSD (ventricular septal defect)
ASD (atrial septal defect)
Pulmonic atresia or stenosis
Tetralogy of Fallot
Right sided aorta
Truncus arteriosus
PDA (patent ductus arteriosus)
Interrupted aortic arch, type B
Coarctation of the aorta

Further information on these conditions can be found on the website of The Children's Heart Federation
http://www.chfed.org.uk/how-we-help/information-service/heart-conditions/

The severity of these conditions varies greatly and in many respects Sarah was "fortunate" to have an interrupted aortic arch rather than one of the other conditions. As Mr. Austin said at the time all of the plumbing was in place it it just needed to be connected properly. Sadly many other conditions are more complex requiring multiple surgical procedures and unfortunately in some cases although medical knowledge continues to advance currently the condition cannot be treated.

Back to October 2005 and Sarah continued to recover from her surgery, the mood on the ward was fairly relaxed as, where possible, patients were being discharged as the cardiac unit geared up for the its move to the new Evelina Children's Hospital the first new children's hospital built in London in 100 years.

The modern Evelina Children's Hospital

The original Evelina Children's Hospital was founded in 1869 by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, in memory of his wife, Evelina who died in childbirth. The original plan was for a maternity hospital but he was persuaded to fund a hospital serving the poor children of South London.  Following the introduction of the NHS, the hospital became a department of Guy's and effectively ceased to exist when services were moved into Guy's Tower in the mid 1970's becoming little more than the name of the children's ward. The hospital was reborn in 2005 with the construction of the new hospital on the site of the former nurses' home at St. Thomas's Hospital.  The hospital is designed around children and in the ground floor waiting area there is a large blue helter-skelter. Now if the hospital was a commercial company I would say that it had be designed to generate new business as having seen how fast children come down the slide I am convinced that it must have delivered a significant number of new "customers" for St. Thomas's Accident & Emergency department !

The day of the move arrived and Sarah and Colleen were in the convey of ambulances making the short journey to the new site. A journalist and photographer from The Times weekend supplement were on hand taking pictures of all the patients. For several weeks we eagerly awaited the Saturday edition of The Times to see if there was an article. The article duly appeared but Sarah did not, typical of the media's obsession with youth there was a younger patient barely two weeks old who stole the limelight !!

One feature of the wards is that built in to the wall beside each bed is a pull down bed which can be used by a parent wishing to stay the night with their child. This is a different world to the one I experienced when I was a child.

I was born with a cleft lip and had surgery at 6 months. By the time I was about four and half a second operation required and I was taken by my parents the the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hackney. I was put in an ambulance with several other children and babies and we waved goodbye to our parents as we were transported 20 mile across London to Banstead in Surrey. I think I must have been in hospital for at least a week and was visited once when my parents took the special coach service that ran to the hospital on a Sunday.  This was the latter part of the 1960's when cars and telephones were luxury items and a call to the ward to enquire about my condition would have involved either a walk to the local phone box or finding a neighbour willing to let my parents use their phone in return for a threepenny bit !!

Threepenny bit for the benefit of younger readers

I am not sure if I was traumatised by this event but two things stick in my mind. The first was being put in a bath as soon as I arrived at the hospital. In the 1960's no-one was allowed near a ward until they had been doused in eau de carbolic and secondly being told by a teacher that I could not participate in the hospital school as I was too young.

Fortunately things have moved on in the last 50 years particularly in the world of medical treatment and just 7 days after undergoing surgery Sarah was discharged from hospital and we were on our way home.