Operation Let’s Fix the Baby’s Heart seems to have been a success.

I mentioned in an earlier post that our new baby was born with a heart defect that would require a medical procedure. The good doctors and nurses at B.C. Children’s Hospital performed the procedure yesterday – a heart catheterization to fix our son’s pulmonary valve stenosis. Basically, they threaded a line up through the femoral artery in his groin to his heart, where they inflated a balloon to force open the problem valves and relieve the pressure on his heart. We won’t know for a while if it’s a permanent fix or if they’ll have to perform actual heart surgery to fix the problem, but everyone is optimistic at this point. And the baby? He’s happy and sleepy.

Not long ago, the only fix to this problem would have been heart surgery, which is always a dangerous affair. Procedures like the one our son had are fairly new but incredibly safe and much less invasive. Medicine has come a long way, thanks to people like the health professionals at B.C. Children’s and other hospitals. Once again, I am humbled by the daily miracles they routinely perform.

OK, now it’s time to initiate Operation Reduce Parents’ Stress Level.