One-week-old has open heart surgery at Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas
Jameson is one of the bounciest babies you'll ever meet . At 8 months, he's teething and seems ready to take on the world. But this wasn't always the case.
At just 24 weeks into the pregnancy, his mom, Desiree, had a prenatal scan and heard the words no mother wants to hear. "I don't remember much of what happened after she said something was wrong," said Desiree Siek.
Desiree and her husband John, were referred to a fetal cardiologist
They were told Jameson had all four chambers but that there could be a hole in his heart and that Jameson would likely need surgery. "I requested adamantly that we met with the surgeon before I gave birth because I wanted to know whose hands were going to be in our baby's chest."
That's where Doctor Camille Hancock Friesen comes in.
She is the Medical Director of Pediatric Vascular Surgery at Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. She spoke to Desiree and John about Jameson's condition and what they could expect. And then did something that Desiree desperately needed.
"Right before we left, she put her arms around me and said im going to treat him just like my own, sorry, (laughs) And it meant the world," explained Desiree. "I don't think that anything else would have made me feel any better."
Once Jameson was born, Doctor Hancock Friesen went to work.
Explaining what needed to be done in the first 30 days of his life.
((Take sot))dr. Camille hancock friesen/medical dir of pediatric cardiovascular surgery
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"Jameson was born with a cyanotic congenital heart disease called transposition of the great arteries," explained Dr Camille Hancock Friesen. "And that is just not a sustainable circulation in that the two great blood vessels are rising from the wrong pumping chamber and so we have to do some pretty major plumbing changes to get those arteries set up on the right system."
Jameson was just a week old when he went under the knife.
He had an arterial switch operation, which usually takes about six hours.
After the surgery, Jameson's chest stayed open for four days to prevent swelling.
And some 20 difficult days later, Jameson was given the okay to head home.
"These are families that face incredible challenges, emotional and psychological challenges, waiting for the birth of the child and then walking through the delivery and knowing that they have big interventions in the immediate post natal period," said Dr Camille Hancock Friesen. "And we just take off our hats to the families and to these kids, they're the heroes and we're just cheering them on from the sidelines."