Chloe was born with two rare congenital heart defects: Ebstein’s anomaly, meaning her tricuspid valve is malformed, and Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, which means her heart has an extra electrical pathway. As her mom Megan explains, “Chloe’s heart has some wonky electrical lines which sometimes like to short circuit, causing her to go into something called supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT.”
SVT is a very fast or erratic heartbeat, which, in severe cases, can be very dangerous as the heart is not properly pumping oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. While a typical heartbeat is 60-100 beats per minute, when Chloe is in SVT, her heart is beating 215 times per minute. She experienced her first case of SVT when she was just four weeks old.
Chloe was on a beta blocker that helped regulate her heart until she was six years old, when things had been stable for long enough that she was able to wean off them. However, when she was 10, she began experiencing SVT again. Thankfully, now she is able to recognize and tell her family when she feels her heartbeat racing so they can they get to the Emergency Department at the Alberta Children’s Hospital as quickly as possible. “The longer you’re in SVT the harder it is to get you out of it, so every minute counts,” says Megan. In Emergency, the team uses an echocardiogram machine to see just how fast Chloe’s heart is going and then, in severe cases, gives her an IV infusion of a medication called adenosine to help reboot and stabilize the rhythm of her heartbeat. Chloe has had two visits to Emergency resulting in adenosine infusions in the last year.
Adenosine infusions are immediately followed by saline to push the medication to the heart as quickly as possible. This means it’s important to find the biggest, strongest vein available for the infusions – one that can handle the large influx of liquid. However, since children in SVT are already feeling unwell and often dehydrated, finding the best vein in a hurry can be challenging. A leading-edge piece of equipment called a Vein Viewer that shows the location and size of veins painlessly and non-invasively helps specialists find the most suitable vein quickly, resulting in fewer pokes for the child – especially helpful in Chloe’s case as she is very scared of needles.
Chloe’s family is so thankful for the care they have received at the Alberta Children’s Hospital over the years. They are happy to share their story as part of a special Equipment Power Hour to raise money for a new echocardiogram machine and a vein viewer for the Emergency Department.
