Elizabeth's Story

During my labour, the doctors noticed our baby was quite distressed and they decided that I would need an emergency caesarean section to save my baby.

The caesarean was all a bit of a blur. Elizabeth was born at St George Public Hospital on 9th November 2005. I saw our new baby daughters face for a split second, and all I could hear in the background was it's ok, keep breathing little one. I then had a feeling that something was wrong.

When Elizabeth was born she didn't cry straight away and she was blue and floppy. She was then taken to the special care unit to be monitored. We were then told she may have a heart condition and that she needed to be transferred to Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick for further testing.

My husband and I were speechless- I still had not held my baby -I was so distressed. Following the testing, Elizabeth was diagnosed with 3 Complex Heart Conditions - Transposition of the Great Arteries(TGA), Ventricular Septal Defect(VSD) and Pulmonary Atresia. We were told conditions are serious, but common- however having all 3 at once is unimaginable!

Elizabeth had her first heart surgery at just 2 days old. She has had 2 more heart surgeries in her first year of life. Elizabeth will continue to have ongoing surgeries throughout her lifetime.

Being given all this information at the time was all confusing and trying to understand all these complex heart conditions was frightening. As parents, we both wanted to know more but the information was extremely difficult to understand. This where the HeartKids Family Support
Co-ordinator stepped in and was there to support us entirely. We don't know what we would have done without the support!

For more on Elizabeth Heldzingen's journey, please visit her website at: Elizabeth Heldzingen