Ryan

Ryan was born in 1991 and was diagnosed at 8 weeks of age. His official diagnosis is complex congenital heart defects. He has had three surgeries. he underwent a Double Switch at 2 years of age at the Cleveland Clinic.

Ryan is a very active boy but has been struggling with fatigue over the past year. As a result of his Ebstein's Anomaly, his tricuspid valve is now leaking severely and must be replaced. He will be having another surgery in Cleveland this winter.

April 2005 Update

Ryan's surgery has been scheduled for May 11. We have decided to have his surgery done here in Rochester instead of traveling to Cleveland. Ryan's tricuspid valve is leaking severely and the results of the three exercise stress tests done over the past year show an decreasing ability in his exercise capacity. Even though Dr. Mee in Cleveland agreed that Ryan's numbers indicate that his tricuspid valve should be replaced, he still wants to wait 1-2 more years to do the surgery because of the risk involved. However, Ryan's cardiologist here feels that the numbers from all of the tests along with Ryan's symptoms indicate that the surgery should be done now. We also agree with this because we observe Ryan being able to do less and less activity as time goes on. So we met with the surgeon here last week. He told us that this will be a very risky surgery because the replacing of the tricuspid valve in a child who has already undergone the Double Switch operation is very rare. He is unsure as to whether or not he will even be able to reach the valve because of where it is located. He may approach the surgery by putting in a bi-directional Glenn which will allow him better access to the valve and would mean less stress on the ventricle after the valve is replaced.