January 3, 2018
An unthinkable illness
By ALYSSA ADAM
Two month-old Conner Hudgen has not had an easy life, so far.
Parents, Ben and Marquis Hudgen, found out at 28 weeks pregnant that the little boy they were expecting had D-Transposition of the great arteries. After Conner was born on Oct. 24, he was also diagnosed with Pneumothorax, a chronic lung disease.
D-Transposition is a heart in which the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed. When a D-Transposition occurs, the blood pathway is impaired because the two arteries are connecting to the wrong chambers in the heart.
“Pneumothorax” is the medical term for a collapsed lung. Pneumothorax occurs when air enters the space around your lungs, or the pleural space. Air can find its way into the pleural space when there’s an open injury in your chest wall or a tear or rupture in your lung, disrupting the pressure that keeps your lungs inflated.
“It was shocking,” Marquis said. “We had never heard of this before. He was much sicker than we had anticipated. It was scary.”
Shortly after he was born at Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn., Connor was transferred to St. Mary’s Hospital, also in Rochester, to undergo a balloon atrial septostomy. The purpose of this is to improve the mixing of his oxygen-rich blood with his oxygen-poor blood, information provided by CaringBridge said.
He spent six days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to improve lung function and prepare him for heart surgery.
Parents, Ben and Marquis Hudgen, found out at 28 weeks pregnant that the little boy they were expecting had D-Transposition of the great arteries. After Conner was born on Oct. 24, he was also diagnosed with Pneumothorax, a chronic lung disease.
D-Transposition is a heart in which the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed. When a D-Transposition occurs, the blood pathway is impaired because the two arteries are connecting to the wrong chambers in the heart.
“Pneumothorax” is the medical term for a collapsed lung. Pneumothorax occurs when air enters the space around your lungs, or the pleural space. Air can find its way into the pleural space when there’s an open injury in your chest wall or a tear or rupture in your lung, disrupting the pressure that keeps your lungs inflated.
“It was shocking,” Marquis said. “We had never heard of this before. He was much sicker than we had anticipated. It was scary.”
Shortly after he was born at Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn., Connor was transferred to St. Mary’s Hospital, also in Rochester, to undergo a balloon atrial septostomy. The purpose of this is to improve the mixing of his oxygen-rich blood with his oxygen-poor blood, information provided by CaringBridge said.
He spent six days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to improve lung function and prepare him for heart surgery.
