A Kid at Heart Navy man suffering from congenital defect undergoes open heart surgery at CHKD
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hevaughn Griffiths had no reason to think there was something wrong with the way his heart had developed before he was born. From his childhood in Jamaica, to enlisting in the U.S. Navy, he never suspected he was living with a rare congenital heart defect – until crippling pain sent him on a search for answers. Even then, he could not have imagined that, at 25 years old, he would undergo open heart surgery at CHKD, the children’s hospital near his home in Chesapeake, Virginia. In July of 2020, Chevaughn was working in a fuel lab aboard a guided missile cruiser, somewhere past the Suez Canal, when he experienced pain so intense he couldn’t move. The pain began in his left hand, traveled up his arm, and then to his shoulder and neck. “It really stopped me in my tracks,” says Chevaughn, who was 24 at the time. “I could not move for over a minute. It was so painful. I had tears in my eyes.” On doctor’s orders, Chevaughn had a full checkup at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) once he returned home. By then, he was experiencing chest pain frequently. Cardiologists at NMCP ordered a CT scan to see if it would reveal any answers. They called Chevaughn with the results that same day. The scan showed that the right side of Chevaughn’s heart was enlarged and there was an abnormality of a major blood vessel. The cardiology team at NMCP referred him to Dr. Alexander Ellis, one of two cardiologists at CHKD’s Heart Center who is board-certified in the treatment of congenital heart defects in adults. While adult cardiologists and cardiac surgeons primarily treat normal hearts that have become diseased over time, CHKD’s Heart Center features a program that specializes in taking care of patients of all ages whose
hearts have malformations that were present at birth. After his evaluation by Dr. Ellis, Chevaughn learned he had a heart defect called partially anomalous pulmonary venous return, or PAPVR. One of the veins that is supposed to carry oxygenated blood from his lungs to the left side of his heart was instead attached to the right side of his heart. “This abnormal structure led to increased blood flow to the right side of his heart and lungs, which enlarged his heart and increased pressure in the blood vessels of his lungs,” says Dr. Ellis. “As a result, Chevaughn’s heart was growing bigger and he was getting 50 percent more blood flow through his lungs than what is normal.” Initially, Chevaughn didn’t want to believe something had been seriously wrong with his heart since birth. But he began to accept his diagnosis after he met with Dr. Philip Smith, chief of cardiac surgery at CHKD, and Dr. James Gangemi, surgical director of the regional collaborative for cardiac care at CHKD, a partnership established by CHKD and the University of Virginia. Gangemi also serves as surgical director of pediatric congenital heart surgery at UVA. Along with Dr. Ellis, Drs. Smith and Gangemi laid out a couple of options for Chevaughn. They could monitor his heart with regular testing, or he could have surgery for a permanent repair. It was a surgery Drs. Smith and Gangemi had performed many times before. Although they couldn’t promise Chevaughn that his chest pain would completely disappear, the repair would stop his heart from growing any larger. Without surgical intervention, he could develop dangerous complications including arrhythmias and pulmonary hypertension. Although Chevaughn was frightened by the idea of having surgery, he ultimately felt it was the best decision
WRITTEN BY Alice Warchol • PHOTOGRAPHY BY Susan Lowe
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Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters
