Baby Kian Julius finally went home yesterday after spending six months in hospital following open-heart surgery. The little girl still has to use a mobile ventilator to help her to breathe.
Her discharge coincided with her mother Chrislynn’s birthday, and they were given an emotional send-off by members of the paediatric ICU unit at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, including Kian’s physiotherapist, speech therapist, dietitian and her surgeon, Susan Vosloo.
Also there for the send-off were Kian’s father, Adrian, and her older brother, Cohen, 6.
Vosloo, who is South Africa’s first female heart surgeon, has become like a family member to the baby and her parents over the past six months.
Kian’s parents, from Atlantis, told the Cape Times that doctors picked up irregularities in Kian when Chrislynn was 20 weeks’ pregnant.
Chrislynn said after Kian was born she had lung infections continuously and had to undergo surgery, resulting in her having to use a ventilator.
There was no better birthday gift than taking her little baby home from the hospital, where she had spent her first Christmas, first New Year celebrations and her first birthday.
Kian was born on April 25 last year. “The doctors had diagnosed that she had a heart defect, and after her birth she spent two months in the hospital’s neonatal unit and was discharged in June last year.
"We had minor setbacks, and when she fell ill we brought her (to hospital) for one night, and picked up issues with her lungs,” Chrislynn said.
Although it had been a trying time, she said, she was married to her best friend and they had been each other’s pillar of strength. Dad Adrian said when Kian was born he held her first as Chrislynn needed medical attention.
“The medical staff, the specialists, the paediatric and neonatal units, we see them as family now because you share emotion with people you didn’t know. Our employers have supportive and understanding during this time, as well as our health insurer Momentum, who have come on board to assist us,” he said.
Paediatric ICU unit manager Dalene Spiring said Kian’s parents had been taught how to monitor her medical equipment, and staff would be available constantly to provide advice and help.
Paediatrician and paediatric pulmonologist Taryn Gray, who has been treating Kian since she was born, said her family’s insurer had partnered with the hospital in providing the equipment she needed at home. The ventilator had cost almost R80 000.