He was born with his heart on the right side of his body – a mirror image of normal anatomy – and only one heart chamber, but creative surgical thinking has meant a bright future for a young Eastern Cape man.
As Heart Awareness Month draws to a close, mother Heidi Scheepers told of her fears when her son Jonathan, 23, was born in East London in 1995 with an extremely complex heart abnormality.
“He had no wall between his left and right heart chambers,” she said.
“His heart was on the right side of his body and his abdominal organs on the opposite side.
“I was really scared when I walked into the nursery the morning after he was born to find the portable X-ray machine near his crib and leads attached to his body.
“Antenatal scans had not picked up any abnormalities.”
Scheepers said she and Jonathan – who was on oxygen – flew to Cape Town shortly afterwards accompanied by a midwife.
“Once he had the echo scan and we knew the nature of his abnormality, the instruction to me was to let him get a little bigger before surgery.
“I was fortunate in that I am a midwife and could tube-feed expressed breast milk at home.
“This was tricky because I had a toddler of 21 months too, but I was lucky to be a stay-athome mom.”
The Scheepers family live on a farm near Salem, about 20km south of Grahamstown.
“I can remember feeling very alone, living on a farm two hours away from major medical facilities.”
Scheepers said they went back to Cape Town for a threemonth check and it was then that doctors decided not to delay surgery any longer.
“He was operated on in Cape Town by Dr Susan Vosloo when he was three months old. The surgery to create the atrial septum [a wall between the two top chambers of the heart] was a huge success.
“Apart from him being a fussy eater, life was normal.”
By the time Jonathan was four years old he needed replacement of the pulmonary valve – which allows blood to leave the heart – a surgery which Vosloo also performed.
“He had a normal, happy childhood growing up on a farm and took part in the school sports programme including cross-country.
“He did not take any medication and his cardiologist was always impressed with him at his three-yearly check-ups.”
However, in 2017 Jonathan developed a heart flutter after returning from work in the US.
“Medicine did not sort it out and just before he was due to fly back to the US he was referred to Dr Adele Greyling, of Port Elizabeth, who performed an ablation,” Scheepers said.
An ablation is a procedure used to destroy heart tissue that is giving a faulty electronic signal to the heart.
Following the procedure, Jonathan’s heart rate returned to normal.
“He has never felt better and is medication-free.
“Dr Greyling said he should not experience any arrhythmias for the next 20 years-plus.
“We are so fortunate to have such highly specialised medical practitioners right on our doorstep,” Scheepers said.
She said her son was living proof that congenital heart disease (CHD) should not have a negative impact on life.
“He was mostly affected by his CHD because he was not allowed to play contact sport and had to be satisfied with playing touch rugby at break time. Luckily he is in great shape now,” she said.
Greyling said given Jonathan’s condition, it took a creative approach to get his latest procedure done as his heart was a mirror image of normal.
“It needed some creative thinking to position the catheters in the cath lab and to understand his anatomy.”