CLEVELAND -- A hole in the heart is one of the most common genetic heart defects a baby can be born with, but sometimes, there are so few symptoms of that defect, it doesn't get discovered until it's too late to do anything about it.

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Operation Fixes Hole In Heart

NewsChannel5 health team reporter Alicia Booth reported on a local teenager who is getting a new lease on life thanks to surgery to fix her heart defect.

At 15, Casey Stevens was loving life. She had just started riding and found she had a real knack for it. But for every lap she took, the clock was ticking -- Stevens had no idea her heart was having to work harder and harder.

A trip to the doctor for the flu started a frightening chain of events.

"He said I had a really fast heartbeat so he sent me to a cardiologist," said Stevens.

The cardiologist discovered that Stevens had one of the most common congenital heart defects. She was born with a hole in her heart.

The hole was keeping her heart from pumping blood to the right places.

"If I wouldn't have gotten it fixed, I would have had a heart attack in my mid 20's and we wouldn't be able to fix it," said Stevens.

Pediatric heart surgeon Hani Hennein said if a hole is not repaired, the patient's life expectancy is only 30 to 40 years of age.

"So by closing her defect, you've extended her life expectancy from 30 to 40 years up to 70 or 80 years," said Hennein.

Hennein patched the hole in the upper chambers of Stevens' heart by using tissue from her own body.

Almost all holes in the heart need to be fixed, and now the procedure can be fairly simple.

But before the days of open-heart surgery, this wasn't the case.

"What would happen was they would go to sleep at night, and then their heart would have a funny rhythm and then they would pass away," said Hennein.

Because of her surgery, Stevens has many years ahead of her.

And amazingly, she's up and running less than two months after the operation.

"I still get dizzy and stuff. I get light-headed sometimes and I'm still getting tired because I'm not completely 100 percent," said Stevens. "But other than that, I'm doing pretty well."

Often, a hole in the heart is just one in a series of problems a child can face.

Stevens is lucky -- that was her only defect, and it was simple to fix once she discovered she had it.

If you have any questions about genetic heart defects in children, or other questions about cardiac care, call University Hospitals at (888) 844-8250.

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