The Beat Goes On for teen Logan and family

“THEY can be as much as they want to be,” says Louise Kelly, a Tallaght mum to a teenage son born with a congenital heart defect.

Louise’s son, Logan (16) is now a thriving six foot plus transition year student in Old Bawn Community School.

However, in the weeks after Logan’s birth, things were much more precarious.

At just six-weeks-old he was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis which meant he had a valve in his heart with two leaves instead of three and the valve was also “quite tight”, according to Louise.

When Logan was 10-weeks-old it was decided that he would have a balloon valvuloplasty, however his valve collapsed and he was started on medication to keep his pump working.

Logan would require surgery called a Ross procedure which is often carried out at four years of age.

However, such was the extent of Logan’s condition at two years old, that in December 2009 it was decided to have the Ross procedure then.

Logan had no energy and could not walk.

“I had to carry him to the surgery,” says Louise.

She remembers the time well.

“We were one of those cases cancelled, if you remember it was in the news at the time, we were on a waiting list,” she recalls.

During the procedure Logan’s aortic valve was removed and replaced with his good pulmonary valve and a valve from a donor patient was inserted to replace Logan’s pulmonary valve.

“The donor was a 36-year-old man who came off a motorcycle in Cork,” says Louise.

“That is very important to us,” she adds.

Logan spent a number of days in the intensive care unit before being transferred to a ward and then eventually home.

The transformation in Logan’s energy levels were remarkable but this also brought its own challenges.

“We were told ‘Don’t let him knock off his chest’, as he had a sternotomy, his sternum was cranked open, he has a titanium band in his chest wall,” says Louise.

“But when we were coming in the hall-door at home, Logan climbed over the back of the sofa,” says Louise.

Logan has come on leaps and bounds but there have been setbacks along the way.

Last year he had a collapse.

“He was brought to hospital, into Tallaght first and then brought to Crumlin,” says Louise.

Logan’s condition has had an effect on his family, including his sisters Amelia (13) aand Maisie (10).

“It’s hard on them, seeing their big brother going in for procedures, having collapses,” says Louise.

Logan will require surgery in his 20’s to replace the pulmonary valve.

On Saturday last Louise attended The Beat Goes On conference organised by the Heart Children Charity for young people and their families in the city centre to mark Global Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Month.

One of the topics discussed was enabling those affected by a congenital heart defect in childhood to transition to being able to manage this condition themselves in adulthood.

As Logan is a sixteen-year-old he is beginning the process of this transition.

Naturally, as Logan’s mum, Louise is “a little anxious” about transferring this decision-making over to him.

However, she and Logan’s dad, Clayton had already been making preparations for this in Logan’s early years.

“As parents, even when Logan was young, we would always ask him to have at least one question for his consultant, even it was silly, like ‘can I go on my bike?’.

Now Logan is asking ‘what [weight] can I lift [in the gym].

He has the armoury to make good decisions,” says Louise.