Jack's Heart Journey

Jack was diagnosed with a large VSD (ventricular septal defect), also known as a hole in the heart at 11 weeks old. Jack's body worked so much harder under the stress of his heart defect which meant he didn't have the energy to take his full feeds and as a result was not gaining weight. Jack needed to gain weight in order to have the surgery to fix his heart so he was given a NG tube. His NG tube took away the stress on his body and he was able to get all the calories he needed to gain enough weight for his surgery. On 20th November 2023 at just 6 months old Jack underwent six hours of open heart surgery to fix his VSD. Jack's surgery was a success and he is now 8 months post surgery and doing amazingly well. After Jack's diagnosis we found ourselves in a world we knew nothing about until we came across Tiny Tickers. The charity has provided us with incredible advice, information and support. The charity has allowed us to become part of an amazing community of heart families all going through similar journeys to us. Being able to meet and talk to other families through Tiny Tickers has been a massive source of comfort during such a difficult time. We would love to be able to give something back to Tiny Tickers as a thank you for all their hard work and to show our support to all the little heart warriors out there

Tiny Tickers helps babies with congenital heart disease (CHD), their families and the health professionals who look after them. We want every baby with a serious heart condition to have the best chance of survival and quality of life.

A baby is born with a serious heart condition every 2 hrs in the UK and despite CHD being one of the biggest killers of infants in the UK, only around half of congenital heart defects are picked up during routine prenatal scanning.

www.tinytickers.org