Brendan on his 15th birthday (2008)

Brendan was born in 1993, after being diagnosed in utero with complete congenital heart block. His condition was diagnosed as the result of a routine ultrasound that showed his heart rate to be very slow and irregular. I was sent to an high risk OB who gave us the correct diagnosis. I also learned that I could have lupus. The most common cause of congenital heart block is autoimmune disease in the mother. I had diagnosed myself before my pregnancy with Sjogren's Syndrome, another autoimmune disorder. This proved to be the cause of Brendan's heart defect. I had no idea that this could affect my pregnancy, so I was so surprised and shocked.

I was six months pregnant when Brendan was diagnosed and had weekly ultrasounds and three echocardiograms. The pregnancy went as well as could be expected. Brendan was born about a month early and spent a week in the hospital, but did well. He was expected to do fine, but eventually would need a pacemaker to correct his bradycardia, probably during his teenage years. We also learned that in addition to the heart block, that Brendan had an ASD as well. The cardiologists expected it to close on its own.

In June of 1993 Brendan began to have problems. He developed congestive heart failure due to reflux, reactive airway, the heart block, the ASD was not closing as we had hoped. It became necessary to do open heart surgery to repair the ASD and implant a pacemaker.

Brendan (2002)

The surgery went well and Brendan recovered well. He had a few complications along the way. One of the most worrisome to me was a few episodes when he would not sleep and was throwing up. We took him to the ER and it was discovered that his fontanelle had enlarged due to increased intracranial pressure. This was corrected with a spinal tap, but the cause was not determined. The problem occurred again a week later and another spinal tap was performed. Fortunately the problem has not recurred. Brendan also had scar tissue build around a lead shortly after implant. He had a lead fracture in 1998. Surgery was required to replace the broken lead and pulse generator.

Brendan is now a teenager, almost 14 and still doing just great. Brendan had his last pacemaker implanted in February of 2006. It was moved from his abdominal area to the shoulder. He had a few problems with loss of capture after surgery and we were worried that he would need more surgery to replace the pulse generator. Fortunately, his EP was able to increase the output and solve the problem. The only down side to this is that battery life is reduced. Brendan's last pacemaker was functional for 9 years and this one's expectancy is only 3-5 years. We are hoping that maybe, as the pacemaker settles in, that output can be decreased and extend battery life.

Brendan is still quite active. He is not that great at most sports, but loves tennis and playing outside with his friends, playing basketball and rollerblading. He has shown quite an interest in music, playing cello at school and church and he sings in the New Life Youth Choir at church. He is also in Boy Scouts. We are so proud of him, he is quite a sweetie and has many friends.