Download - Little Hearts Matter

F:
SEND ME STUF
YOUR SHOUT
y
JB, The Youth Gu
cent
11 Greenfield Cres
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 3AU
82
Phone: 0121 455 89
53
Mobile: 07590 5311
.uk
email: [email protected]
Issue 4
Look good?
NEWSFLASH!
Kev told you
about this at
the Open
Day, and
loads of you
said you
wanted the
recipe, so
here it is!
What happened @
LHM last month...
♦ The new main LHM
website went up! Deb
and Gwen spent AGES
making sure that it
was just right. Check
it out at
www.lhm.org.uk
Riddle me this...
Recipe
1. What goes up and down stairs
without moving?
2. Give it food and it will live; give it
water and it will die?
3. What can you catch but not
throw?
4. I run, yet I have no legs. What am
I?
5. Take one out and scratch my head,
I am now black but once was red.
6. What goes around the world and
stays in a corner?
7. What gets wetter the more it
dries?
8. I am full of holes, yet I still hold
water, what am I?
9. The more there is, the less you
see?
10. They come at night without being
called and are lost in the day without being stolen. What are they?
Need the answers? Email [email protected] with “Riddle” in
the subject line and it’ll be sent right along to you. Or
text 07590 531153 with the word riddle and the question
number (eg Riddle4). Usual text rate, ask bill payer
please!
If you want this delicious
cake to eat, then you will
need…
Ingredients
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate
chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract (optional)
1 large coffee mug
Method
♦ Add dry ingredients
to mug, and mix well.
♦ Add the egg and mix
thoroughly.
♦ Pour in the milk and oil
and mix well.
♦
Add the chocolate chips
(if using) and vanilla
extract, and mix again.
♦
Put your mug in the
microwave and cook for 3
minutes at 1000 watts
(high).
♦
The cake will rise over
the top of the mug, but
don't be alarmed!
♦
Allow to cool a little, and
tip out onto a plate.
♦
You can add a dollop of
ice cream if you like, too!
There you have it. You are now
only ever 5 minutes away from
a delicious chocolate cake!
Bon Apetit
Patron
Baroness Howarth of Breckland OBE
A company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, number 06442071, registered office 11 Greenfield Crescent, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, B15 3AU
Registered charity number 1123290
OPEN DAY 2009
♦ Well, as you can see,
we had our Open Day.
I think it was a big
success, and I hope
that more of you will
be able to make our
next Youth Event
I’ve started to ge
t a few things se
nt in, which is
great! Get involv
ed and post or
em
ail me a joke,
story, or review
, and if it gets pu
blished I’ll
send you somet
hing to say than
ks!
Can you crack these ten
tricky riddles?
March/A
pril 200
9
♦ Half of the Youth
Council met and gave
our Chief Exec, Suzie,
a real grilling. They
asked questions like
“Can the young members have a say in the
really important decisions?” and “What has
LHM got planned to
help the siblings?”
♦ We had some more
meetings about our
research questionnaire. When it is
ready, I would love for
as many of you to get
involved as possible!
♦ I found a new charity
called ‘Over The Wall’
that does camps for
any kid with a heart
condition, more next
month!
Young members of LHM are joined by Alex Bicknell (far left) and Caroline Duffy (far right), both grown ups
with a heart condition, who joined the team to share advice and get stuck in with the sport and drama
I think that the Open Days are They help adults with poorly hearts, just
like we help children with heart conditions.
my favourite bit of my job.
We also talked about transition, which is a
Actually, any time that I get to spend with
long posh word, but all it means is change.
any of you lot is ace. I love being able to
We talked about the transition (or change)
mess about for a weekend.
from your child doctor to your adult doctor,
I know that a lot of you couldn’t make this and how we can make this easier, and less
last
Open
Day, scary!
because it was too
We also did a quick talk on the research I
far to travel, so we
keep batting on about, and lots of footy and
will do our best to
drama, which was loads of fun.
make sure that next
time we can have
one a bit closer to
where you are.
Obviously we can’t
get it right every
time, but we’ll do our
best. I want to meet as many of you as I can,
and I’d love for you all to have the chance to
chat to each other.
In case you weren’t at our Open Day on the
15th March, I thought you might like to
know what we did.
If you have any questions on any of these
We had a talk from GUCH, which is a things (transition, GUCH, footy) you can
charity for Grown Ups with Congenital email me of ring me!
Hearts.
So what do the surgeons do?
Single ventricle (this means one pump) heart
conditions like Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
are non-correctable. This means, unfortunately,
there are no procedures or operations that can turn
a Hypoplastic Heart into a normal hearts like the
one on the opposite page.
Check out January’s newsletter to recap on how a normal heart works, and what the
heart’s job is. Then have a look at how a Hypoplastic Left Heart is different. Think
about what the problems with a Hypoplastic left heart could be?
BUT, what they can do, is redirect the blood, so that
the red (oxygenated) blood is being pumped to the
body by the hearts one working pump: the right
ventricle. This is called ‘palliative’ surgery.
So this is a perfectly healthy, normal
heart.
Your heart has two main jobs:
1.
It pumps blood full of lovely oxygen
to your brain and your body
2.
It pumps blood without any oxygen
to your lungs, where it can get the
lovely oxygen!
Follow the steps and see if you understand how the
surgeon re-directs the blood through the heart, so
that it can be pumped by the right ventricle to the
body and the brain.
For some of you, this is the first part of the Fontan
operation, and is normally done when you are aged
between 3 months and 9 months.
The ‘ventricles’ (big word, but it just
means chambers or compartment) are
the two big bags at the bottom of the
heart. They are strong and pump the
blood. The right ventricle pumps the
blue blood to the lungs. The left ventricle pumps the red blood to the body.
Sometimes hearts don’t come out like
this though. Sometimes they come out
different.
Stage 1
This surgery is normally done when you are only
a few days old. The surgeon does three things
to make sure that blood with oxygen (red blood)
can get around the body, and to the brain!
Hypoplastic mea
ns ‘small’ or unde
rdeveloped
4
There are usually
FOUR big differences between a
Hypoplastic Left
Heart and a
normal heart
1
There is a
hole between
the left and the
right collecting
chambers
(atriums).
The posh name
for this is a
Atrial Septal
Defect.
2
Good question!
The left pumping chamber (ventricle) is very small and hasn't
developed very well. This means that is not strong enough to
pump red (oxygenated) blood to the body and the brain.
The Aorta is the tube
(or blood vessel)
which carries red
(oxygenated) blood
to the body and
brain.
Because the left
pumping chamber
doesn’t work, the
aorta is very small
and thin.
3
Valves are like little doors in the
heart.
They only open one
way though, this
stops blood going
the wrong way
through the heart.
The valves on the
left hand side of
the heart will usually be blocked.
The hole between the left and right
collecting chambers (atriums) is made
bigger so that more red (oxygenated)
blood can get into the right side of the heart,
where it can be pumped around the body by the
right ventricle.
After this surgery, any blue blood coming from the head
and the neck goes straight into the lungs, where it can
get some oxygen.
The surgeon cuts the ‘vena cava’, and sews it to the
‘pulmonary artery’. The pulmonary artery takes the blue
blood straight to the lungs, so it can get oxygen and turn
into red blood.
The bottom (or trunk) of the ‘pulmonary
artery’ (look back to the normal heart
picture) is attached to the ‘aorta’. This
makes the aorta bigger, and means more
blood can get to the body
A small tube connects the aorta to the
pulmonary artery, which means used
blood can get to the lungs to get oxygen.
This tube is called a ‘shunt’.
This is pretty tough stuff!
If you are struggling, why don’t you ask
your parents to walk you through it.
It is much easier to learn when
somebody is showing you!
Stage 2
Next month….right-sided conditions and the Fontan operation!