At 15 weeks pregnant, the mother of little baby boy Qin was examined by Dr. Chen Wei-Zhi, Director of the Obstetrics Department, Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TCVGH) with Level II Sonography & Fetal Echocardiography, which detected the fetus presented coarctation of aorta (COA) caused by critical congenital heart disease. The ductus arteriosus of a baby will close naturally two or three days after birth. Once closed, the aorta will present a low blood flow, leading to acute kidney failure and hypoxic shock.
       So at the day of birth, a pediatric cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon sacrified their Spring Festival holiday to safeguard the baby. When the baby was born on January 1, 2020, they provided prostaglandin E1 to the baby to keep his arterial duct smooth and blood supply for circulation. On Day 4 after the baby was born, cardiac surgeon Dr. Wang Zhong-Qi carried out a thoracotomy to repair the aorta and avoid hypoxic shock. After the surgery, the defect was corrected and the baby recovered completely.
       Dr. Lin Ming-Zhi, Director of the Department of Pediatric Medicine of TCVGH reminds, COA is a kind of critical congenital heart disease for fetus and no symptoms appear during pregnancy of the mother and can only by detected with Level II Sonography & Fetal Echocardiography. Many mothers would perhaps choose abortion for worrying about cerebral palsy, which is a sequela that may attack the fetuses due to hypoxia. Actually the defect can be corrected completely through surgery with a high success rate after the baby is born. Therefore he reminds the pregnant women to do sufficient prenatal examinations and Level II Sonography & Fetal Echocardiography can detect any defect early prenatally or after birth to reduce the complications.