Elliot fights back from surgery

Elliot Jones at 14 months of age faces multiple heart operations.

Megan Lewis

ROCKHAMPTON’S Elliot Jones is only 14 months old and already preparing for his second open-heart surgery.

It wasn’t until mother Rebecca Jones gave birth that doctors realised there was something wrong with her new-born child.

“He was just blue,” Rebecca recalled yesterday.

Elliot was diagnosed with Transposition of the Greater Arteries (TGA), which meant two of his main arteries were reversed, sending blood to the wrong area.

Instead of being sent to his lungs, blue blood with low oxygen was sent throughout his body.

Critically ill and unable to be treated in Rockhampton, Elliot was rushed to Brisbane with the Royal Flying Doctors Service to have open-heart surgery at just seven days old.

“Seeing our little boy post surgery and in intensive care was quite horrific,” Rebecca said.

“He had all kinds of tubes, wires, drains, drips and monitors coming out of all parts of his tiny body.”

Elliot is one of the 10% of TGA babies who will require further surgery and have ongoing complications.

After having surgery in May last year, Elliot is now facing another two operations this year.

“He’s always going to be a sick kid,” Rebecca said.

“There are kids with his condition who sometimes die so we always try and keep that in mind.”

Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Week is run nationwide from February 7 to 14, with HeartKids QLD aiming to raise money for research and hospital equipment.

A race day will be held by HeartKids on Sunday at the Sunshine Coast, with proceeds going to equipment for the cardiac ward in the Mater Children’s Hospital.

An online forum is also run by the organisation to support parents as well as some Facebook groups but not much else, Rebecca said.

“I think it would be great to have more support groups,” she said.

Rebecca now stays home full-time to look after her son who, regardless of what he’s been through, always is happy and wears a smile.

HEART FACTS

• One in 100 Australian children is born with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD)
• Every 3½ hours a child is born with a serious heart defect
• Six babies a day are born with CHD (2015 babies a year)
• CHD is the number one reason for child death (accounting for 35% of all deaths)
• CHD is the number one birth abnormality in Australia
• Heart defects range from a hole in the heart to a complex combination of conditions
• Heart disease is the most common reason for admission of Australian children into intensive care units, with more than 1300 being admitted each year