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Anyone here who had undergone an open heart surgery at Philippine Heart Center?

Do you have a son/daughter, members of the family, friends who had a congenital heart disease and undergone open heart surgery in Philippine Heart Center? If yes, what can you say about the hospital (services, facilities, etc.). Who are your attending Pediatric Cardiologist and Pediatric Cardio Surgeon? Tell something about after the operation?

Public Comments

1. Hello, I can only answer your last question. I have had open heart surgery to correct a patent foramen ovale (congenital defect, but more specifically an atrial-septal defect) back in 1999. There is a new way to do it now that doesn't require open heart surgery, and if this option is available to whomever is getting the surgery done I highly suggest they go that route if possible. For me, I had to have open heart surgery because this particular procedure was 6 mos away from FDA approval. The surgery is very invasive, but is done very often and has come a long way in the last 30 years or so. I did have a complication from the surgery that was worse than the defect I had, but after two more surgeries I was able to leave the hospital and have not had troubles since. My complication is fairly common in young patients, it's called a parachardial effusion, fluid builds up around the heart and, if severe, as mine was (I had 5 cms all around) it can cause faiting and death. It happens because some people's hearts will get irritated by being exposed/touched and will start to develop the fluid as a result. As for the initial surgery, I was put in ICU for one day immediately after surgery for observation and because I was doing okay, they put me back in the heart center for about 5 more days, then sent me home. I was fine for a few days until the effusion started causing me to faint. If I hadn't had the effusion, I would have probably been fine to be out and about after a week or so of pain killer and rest. I do remember going to the mall with friends and going out to eat before I started fainting, so that would have been...8 days after surgery! Not bad at all! Good luck to you and the little one undergoing surgery. FYI, at the time of my surgery I was a 24 year old, I asked the surgeon to make the scar as small as possible, and he did manage to make it 2 inches shorter than most! So it doesn't hurt to ask for these things!