Since I haven't explained yet what exactly a heart defect is, I want to do that before trying to explain Kiley's defects. Especially, since hers are rather rare.
Congenital Heart Defect (CHD)-
Congenital heart defects are abnormalities in the hearts structure. This happens because of incomplete or abnormal development of a fetus' heart ib the very early weeks of a pregnancy. *Approximately 1 in every 125 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect, which can range from mild to severe. Congenital heart defects may involve a heart valve, a heart chamber, the septum, an artery or blood flow issues. The severity of the defect is how treatment is decided. There are some mild defects that don't require treatment. While others can be treated with medication, procedures or surgery.
To better understand CHD's its important to how a healthy heart works. Learning what all a heart does and how exactly the heart does its job really helped me completely understand Kiley's heart.
How A Healthy Heart Works-
The heart is a very strong, hard working, double pump made out of muscle tissue. Your heart is about the size of your fist. The heart is made up of 4 chambers, 4 valves and has 2 sides.
Starting with the 4 chambers, the upper 2 are the Ateria and the lower 2 are called the ventricles. The chambers are seperated by a wall of tissue called a septum. Blood is pumped through the heart by the 4 valves. The valves open and close allowing blood to only flow in one direction.
The 4 valves are called the Tricupsid valve, the Pulmonary valve, the Mirtal valve and the Aortic valve. Each valve have "flaps" (also known as leaflets or cusps) The Mitral valve normally has 2 flaps, while the rest have 3. The flaps help to keep the blood flowing in the right direction, and prevents back flow.
Now the 2 sides of the heart. The heart has 2 pumps or sides. These are called the Left Heart and the Right Heart. The Right Heart receives blood that has just come from your body after delivering nutrients and oxygen to the body tissue. It pumps the blood to the lungs. Here the blood gets rid of a waste gas (carbon dioxide) and picks up a fresh supply of oxygen . The the Left Heart receives this restored blood from the lungs and pumps it through the Aorta, where smaller arteries distributes the oxygen-rich blood to all parts of your body.
The picture I attached shows a healthy heart and a heart with a defect. I hope this information has been helpful.
