Inside Pediatrics Winter 2021

HOW TO HEAL A BROKEN HEART

Children’s cardiologists become first in Southeast to implant new heart device

T here are many paths to the human heart. In a strictly proverbial sense, you might get there with jewelry, flowers or kind words. But only certain doctors know the best path to heal a heart that’s broken. For William McMahon, M.D., it’s all about taking a different route. He’s an interventional cardiologist at Children’s of Alabama who specializes in procedures that are less invasive than surgery. In July 2021, he used a new transcatheter valve device to repair the heart of a 16-year-old girl without open- heart surgery. McMahon and his colleague, cardiologist Mark Law, M.D., together with the Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Lab team at Children’s, were the first in a 10-state Southeastern region to implement the procedure. “We think that’s a major milestone,” said McMahon, the medical director of the pediatric interventional cardiology program at Children’s of Alabama. “This valve has the potential to be a groundbreaking change in the care of children and young adults who need pulmonary valve replacement after tetralogy operation.” The device, known as Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2021. What makes it appealing is that it can be implanted without open-heart surgery. Doctors can get it to the heart through a vein in the leg or neck. That’s a relief for patients like Olivia Kelley. The Hoover High School junior was born with tetralogy of Fallot, a heart defect that usually requires open-heart surgery for repair when the child is still an infant. Kelley underwent open-heart surgery to repair her heart defect when she was three months old. The operation left behind a long scar down her chest. “It’s always been a part of me,” Kelley said. “So, when I went to the pool, if someone asked, ‘What’s that scar?’ I would just explain it to them.”

The Harmony Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve can be implanted without open-heart surgery.

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