Margaret Smith, a former child heart patient, spoke to me by
phone from her home in Jersey. She was admitted to the hospital as a
four-year-old.
“I was suffering from
Ebsteins Syndrome
a congenital heart defect.
“ It is now thought it could have been linked to my mother,
who suffered from post natal depression, been given lithium during her
pregnancy.”
“I became a patient
in Sully Hospital in 1956 and attended out patients up until 1975.”
Born in Pontypridd,
her parents had a long journey from the family home to visit her, which
involved taking two buses, and her father had to take a day off work.
One day on visiting they
got told they could take Margaret home.
“I remember running up to them in just my
knickers and vest because I had no clothes. These were all taken off you and
sent back home when you were admitted.”
“So they wrapped me
up in a blanket and I went home - on two
buses! It was either that or my parents having to make another long journey to
get me. We had no telephone in those days.
Her memories of
Sully are happy.
“I was only there
for a couple of weeks but I remember it as a cheerful, sunny place where we
could go out and play in the garden.”
The test of whether
she was fit enough to go home after her operation was to run up 60 stairs.
“ There was no
treadmill in those days,” says Margaret.
She knew Sully as a
heart hospital and did not know until I told her that it was also a TB
hospital.
(I recall how heart
and TB patients were strictly segregated and we were never allowed near each
other.)
After her marriage
she asked the doctors if she could have a family.
While Dr Davies in
Sully said yes the doctor she consulted near her home on the south coast advised
against it and sent a letter to Dr Davies explaining why. Margaret still has
copies of those letters.
Throughout her life
Margaret has had to attend regular check up for her heart and she enjoyed a
normal life until nearly ten years ago when her health deteriorated and she
ended up in a wheelchair.
But a pioneering
breakthrough came in 2009 when Margaret was approached by Victor Tsang, a world
class cardiac surgeon undertaking risky repair of neonatal heart problems at
Great Ormond Street hospital, London if she would be prepared, as the first
adult in the UK, to undergo a groundbreaking operation.
“ Well, I felt I had
nothing to loose,” she said.” It turned out to be a miracle. Within weeks I was
walking again.”
Today she enjoys good
health and loves taking long walks on the beach in Jersey with her husband of
forty years.
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