Maddison Murphy

Maddison has Tetralogy of Fallot (Made up of 4 defects-small main lung artery, larger than normal right ventricle, large hole in the lower chambers of the heart and her body artery is larger than normal and more over the right ventricle than it should be).  She also has one of the more severe forms of this defects as it not only effected her main lung artery but all the small branches out in her lungs(branch pulmonary artery stenosis) because of this she has higher than normal pressures in her lungs(pulmonary hypertension).  

Maddison has had two surgeries in infancy (one was a shunt to provide blood to her lungs and the second was to repair the heart defects).  It was discovered at 15 months of age that her lung arteries were so significantly affected and she had the high lung pressures.  She has undergone multiple cardiac cath procedures to try to increase the size of her lung arteries with cutting balloons and stents.  She has a total of 10 Pulmonary stents.  She still remains with very small lung arteries.  

Because of all the high pressure in lungs and the small lung arteries, it puts a lot of strain on the right side of her heart.  She has undergone a procedure where they have created a hole in the upper chamber of her heart to allow a little of this pressure to be relieved to the left side.  Maddison had a Pulmonary Valve replacement August 2015.  However, she does have right sided heart failure. Due to this Maddison takes multiple medications a day help with her lung pressures and heart failure. 

Eventually, if the procedures are still unable to relieve the high pressures in her lungs then she will have to undergo a heart and lung transplant to try to prolong her life.