The Heart of Healing
Dr. Sumeet Sharma doesn’t have anything against the internet, but when it comes to their child’s health, he tells parents to stay away from Google.
“I tell them that because I’ve Googled what’s out there, and it’s scary,” says Dr. Sharma. “If you’ve got questions, come to us.”
That’s what the pediatric cardiologist at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital told Ivy’s mother, Amanda, at their very first consultation over Ivy’s heart.
Ivy was born with Down syndrome, which caused a birth defect in her heart called atrioventricular septal defect, or AVSD. Ivy had two holes in her heart that were making it hard to pump oxygen and blood to the rest of her body, especially her lungs. For Amanda, who hadn’t known about Ivy’s Down syndrome before she was born, there were a lot of scary moments in those first few days with Ivy.
"We were shocked," says Amanda, remembering the day Ivy was born. "It was such a whirlwind."
Within Ivy’s first hours of life, she was diagnosed with Down syndrome and AVSD. In less than 24 hours, Amanda and her husband met with pediatric cardiologist Dr. Sharma, who immediately put the first-time parents’ minds at ease.
"From the minute he came in, he just had this gentle confidence," Amanda remembers. "And he told us, I’ll let you know when you need to worry."
Dr. Sharma spent time going over Ivy’s diagnosis with the young couple, even drawing diagrams on scraps of paper to show them what Ivy’s heart defect looked like.
AVSD is fairly common in patients with Down syndrome. According to the American Heart Association, about 50 percent of babies born with Down syndrome will also have some form of congenital heart disease, and AVSD is the most common. Treatment for AVSD typically involves surgery to repair the holes in the heart once the patient is 3 years old. For Ivy, that life-saving surgery was performed when she was just 3 months old.
Because Ivy’s family worked closely with Dr. Sharma and his team at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital regularly, Dr. Sharma was able to monitor Ivy’s heart closely and intervene when surgery was necessary. Even when it was time to have the surgery, Amanda remembers that Dr. Sharma never said, "Now is the time to worry."
"He took all our problems, and he just took the burden of it," Amanda says.
After a successful surgery and two years of healing, growing – and plenty of giggles – Ivy is a strong and confident three-year-old. Her favorite things are playing piano and with her baby brother. She continues to see Dr. Sharma for routine appointments, to ensure that she continues to grow to her fullest, healthiest potential.
"She’s writing her own story," Dr. Sharma says. The physician says he and his team are privileged to be a part of that story.
Ivy and Dr. Sharma
You can be a part of every child’s health care story by making a donation today. Every dollar given to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital helps provide life-saving care and purchases state-of-the-art equipment for children battling life-long conditions.
Last year, thanks to donor funding, Children’s Hospital performed more than 4,700 electrocardiograms on patients with heart diagnoses like Ivy’s. Your donor dollars also help fund rehabilitative therapies that are vital to reaching developmental milestones in patients with Down syndrome.
Every dollar helps give our patients a better tomorrow. Please consider making a donation today:
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