Utah Center Expands To Reach More Patients With Congenital Heart Disease
Dec 12, 2018, 7:45 PM | Updated: Dec 14, 2018, 10:04 am
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – More than 1 million people in the United State have congenital heart disease and require life-long care. Many aren’t getting the treatment they need. A Utah program is expanding to reach more of them.
A simple moment of playing with her kids in the living room of their home is one Tiffany Passow doesn’t take for granted.
“Finnegan is nearly 4 and Sawyer is almost 18 months,” said Passow, who wasn’t sure she’d ever have a family of her own.
Passow has had three open heart surgeries, and pregnancy was risky.
“I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve and critical aortic stenosis,” she said. “I wasn’t getting enough oxygenated blood to my body.”
She received care from doctors with the Utah Adult congenital Heart Disease Program.
“Now she has a mechanical valve that opens and closes,” said Dr. Arvind Hoskoppal, from University of Utah Health. “It is important for these patients to be followed life-long in a specialized center like ours.
“I was followed, in touch with, my doctors about once a week. I was seen by my high-risk OB provider every two weeks on average,” Passow said.
The center is a team effort of Intermountain Medical Center and University of Utah Health, and gives patients access to continuous specialized care through adulthood.
That focused care plus advances in medicine mean they’re living long, healthy lives. The center serves more than 2000 patients each year. About 30 percent of them are outside the Salt Lake Valley, according to Hoskoppal.
“Now there are more adults living with congenital heart disease than children. In fact, this number is supposed to keep growing,” Hoskoppal said.
In the past, many people stopped getting treatment which increases their risks, he said. The center is expanding to Southern Utah and surrounding states to reach people like Passow, whose dreams came true.
“It’s everything,” Passow said. “I really didn’t know if I ever was going to have a family. I didn’t know if I was going to live to have a husband. I’m extremely blessed. I’m meant to be here. I’m meant to be their mom.”
The center has clinic through the state, and specialists who travel to Idaho, parts of Nevada and Alaska to treat patients.
