Any doctors here-why aren't echocardiograms routine?

[Simba's Mom]

With this last child's death at WDW being caused, once again, by an unknown congenital heart defect, I can't help but wonder if an echocardiogram would have likely picked up a congenital heart defect, and if so, why isn't that test done routinely? My only experience with the test is that almost 30 years ago, the hospital did it on my 3 pound premie to diagnose Tetrology of Fallot. Well, if they could do it on a baby that many years ago, why don't they do it on all babies now? Then maybe these sudden, unexpected deaths would be less likely to happen. Am I being to naive here? I'd really appreciate any input.

 

[of the seas]

Me and my husband were just talking about the same thing!! We thought it should be a part of a check-up on a child also. Maybe when the child is 5 or 10 or so. I wonder why it isn't?

 

[meshmar]

Not speaking as a DR (but I was a paramedic), it's probably related to insurance not paying for tests unless there is a valid indication for them. Personally, I think every child entering sports should be required to have one ... but.

 

[Alicia87]

DD15's cardiologist tells me they are very close to making a universal test for diagnosing congenital heart defects mandatory on all newborns. It even comes down to the simplicity of running oxygen sats sometimes to "pick up" on a problem with the newborn's heart.

Luckily, the day my DD was born, her pediatrician had very keen hearing and detected her murmur right away (of course, her "blue spells" while feeding were a dead giveaway also). We were blessed to be shipped off to Children's Hospital in Columbus when she was 2 days old and received her diagnosis that day. Had open heart surgery to repair her defect at 7 months, and had her second one done in March 2005.

If any parents or parents-to-be are concerned, contacting your state senator is a win/win situation also. Doesn't hurt to have higher ups on your side! I'm pushing right now for schools in our area to be equipped with AEDs just in case a child collapses and God forbid, their heart stop.

 

[Kimberle]

Remember, Doctors don't practice medicine, Insurance companies do.....

The all mighty $$$$$ rules, I'm sure......

 

[bicker]

It all comes back to us and how much we are willing to pay: Do you really want to fork over the extra money that it would cost if insurance covered routine echocardiograms? While some people do, many people couldn't afford any medical insurance if they had to pay the higher premium that something like that would bring about.

 

[NJBlackBerry]

Remember, Doctors don't practice medicine, Insurance companies do.....

The all mighty $$$$$ rules, I'm sure......

But we pay for it. Are you willing to cover the cost for EVERYONE having an echo at birth? The hospitals have to pass the costs on. Not everyone has insurance - or is that going to start another thread?

 

[Disney Doll]

But we pay for it. Are you willing to cover the cost for EVERYONE having an echo at birth? The hospitals have to pass the costs on. Not everyone has insurance - or is that going to start another thread?

Very true statement.

Most people are willing to pay for thier own echo, but not the echoes of the millions of uninsured or government insured folks, which is also what will end up happening.

You know, many folks complain about healthcare being a business...well of course it is. Hospitals need money to run. The diagnostic machines, supplies, and employees aren't free, for God's sakes. They have to be paid or pai for. You have no idea how many times, working in a hospital as I do, that I hear "Well, your hospital keeps billing my friend even though she has no money to pay. I don't know why they don't just write it off." Well, because writing off the bills of people who "have no money" (but of course, still have their cell phone, their Ipod, their 4 pounds of jewelry, and their leased BMW) means the people that do "have money", or at least insurance, absorb that cost.

 

[Tanuki]

Just to throw this into the conversation - an echocardiogram costs between 200 to 400 dollars in most cases - in some instances the cost could run higher (up to around a thousand dollars).

Let's say that we decided to echo every baby born in America and we did it for the lowest cost of $200. According to the U.S. Census the average number of babies born in the US annually is 4 million. So we are discussing something that would cost someone 800 million.

Granted, this is only a fraction of the Billions of dollars a DAY we spend on the war in Iraq. So the US should be able to afford it. It's just that we, as a nation, have decided that fighting a war in Iraq is a better allocation of funds to make us, as a nation, safer than screening for the one in 500 babies born with a congenital heart defect.

If you divide the 4 million by 500, that comes out to 8 thousand.
Between 2 and 3 thousand people were killed in 2001 on Sept 11 (5 years ago). 40 thousand babies have been born with congenital heart defects since. Some will suddenly drop dead later in life. The basketball player Pete Maravich was one of them.

It's not that we dont have the money. If we can afford the war in Iraq we have the money many times over. It's just that we decided that we have other priorities which we feel make us safer. It's very important to voters that our tax dollars don't go to support "socialized medicine".

So we could choose to pay the higher insurance premiums or for that matter use your tax cut to pay for it yourself. This family spent as much money on their day at Disney World as it would have cost to get that child checked for congenital heart disease.

 

[Tiggeroo]

but most families aren't aware of this option. I have two sons who are athletes, one who runs 100mpw at times. If somebody said to me, "" I'd pay the money and get the test done. I never knew. I think if I had walked into my dr's office and said I was worried about this can we get this test done he'd laugh at me as an over-protective parent.
However, on son is no longer doing sports and the other was having chest pains and has a murmur so they ordered an echo which was clean. I feel better now knowing this.

 

[Tanuki]

I guess I am because I drive by a corner on my way to work where "any lab test" is available. Also because the guy who is the sportscaster for the Atlanta Braves got a full body CT scan for his 50th birthday as a present from his wife and was found to need cardiac bypass surgery. There was lots of discussion about that in the local media. You can buy any test if you put up the money.

 

[salmoneous]

I think the other piece of the answer is what you would *do* with the test results if you found out about an abnormality. Do you raise the child never letting them run, never letting them play, never letting them go on any rides, never letting them do anything that would put stress on their heart?

Remember, having a heart abnormality doesn't mean you will die as soon as you put stress on the heart, it just means you are more likely to.

My BIL has a heart abnormality - fairly typical of kids with Downs. His parents take some precautions, but for the most part they let him live his life knowing and accepting the risks. I obviously can't know, but my guess is the parents of the boy who recently died at Disney would have done the same. Knowing about his heart defect wouldn't necessarily have kept him off the coaster.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I believe the one that most of these kids have can be corrected with surgery. But if I knew that my son had this problem he wouldn't be doing track and running 100mpw. He'd live but there'd be some restrictions.

 

[Blondie]

Remember, Doctors don't practice medicine, Insurance companies do.....

The all mighty $$$$$ rules, I'm sure......

You got that right, but you forgot the DEA. They're practicing medicine too.

I think it would be wonderful if they had a routine diagnostic heart test very much like the hearing screen that is done on all babies here in Virginia to pick up on hearing loss.

 

[shanfl]

this is for Simba's MOM Hi my son to has Tetralogy of Fallot where do you live and how old is your son? I live in Jupiter , FL and my son is 4 yrs old

 

[NJBlackBerry]

In Fantasy Land (not the MK version) there would be universal health care, at no charge and everyone will be healthy and live forever.

There is no Fantasy Land. Universal Health Care doesn't work (anyone from the UK care to chip in) and it doesn't stop people from dying.

People will die. It's a part of life. Sorry to rain on the Disney-fied parade over here, but that's a reality.

And having echos at birth won't stop that. Because as soon as a child dies of a heart realted issue, after an echo has been done, the lawyers will take over, right?

 

[Kelsie]

One of the problems we discovered was Dr's can't always determine a heart defect shortly after birth. The closing of the PDA valve (This is a valve between the heart and lungs. When it closes, the child gets oxygen from its own lungs rather than from the Mother) can take awhile to close totally.

My daughter was 1 month old before they discovered hers didn't close and by that time the left side of her heart was 3 times its normal size. To make matters worse, it wasn't until after they surgically closed it that they discovered yet another heart defect. She had a hole in her heart the size of a quarter.

Although I am also in favor of early testing, it's not always going to show the defect that early.

 

[Blondie]

In Fantasy Land (not the MK version) there would be universal health care, at no charge and everyone will be healthy and live forever.

There is no Fantasy Land. Universal Health Care doesn't work (anyone from the UK care to chip in) and it doesn't stop people from dying.

People will die. It's a part of life. Sorry to rain on the Disney-fied parade over here, but that's a reality.

And having echos at birth won't stop that. Because as soon as a child dies of a heart realted issue, after an echo has been done, the lawyers will take over, right?

You're right people die all the time. My DH says when your time is up, your time is up. But when it comes to my children, if there's an ounce of preventative that I can take to help extend their lives or prevent them from having an early heart attack, I'd take that option if it were available.

No parent should have to bury their child.

 

[Pin Wizard]

It's frightening! Probably start with the insurance companies. Are they going to cover any part of it financially on a child for it to be done routinely? My son had testing as an infant because my husband had died from a massive heart attack at a young age just months before. So they checked my son...they had a reason for it.

Yesterday at work I heard that a 12 year old boy of one of the nurses died the night before. He had a problem with gastro reflux recently, or so they thought when tests were recently done. The boy died in his sleep! Imagine her going in to check on him in the morning and finding him. I can't imagine! Of course an autopsy is being done, but as of yesterday afternoon we hadn't heard any results yet. Hug those kids!!!!!!

 

[3DisneyBuggs]

My DD was born with a blocked valve in her heart. It was caught immediately and she had a balloon procedure at 4 months. Thankfully she is fine and goes yearly for check ups. We had our older DS given an EKG and Echo at one of her visits also. I will also have the little one checked out soon too. It's sad that $$ has to dictate our health, especially our children's.

I think echoes should be mandatory for athletes, esp if these congenital abnormalities can be fixed.