There are those who consider little María the miracle baby. It barely weighed 1,310 grams when she had to undergo emergency heart surgery because she suffered from constant tachycardia. She became the smallest girl in the world who underwent cardiac ablation. “They were the worst Christmas of my life,” Raquel Sancho, mother of this Aragonese woman who came into the world on December 23, 2018 in an induced birth, recalls to this newspaper.
His case, due to the complexity of the intervention, was something historic for medicine and research, recording another avenue of hope for patients with heart problems, whose World Day is celebrated today. «They made them very black and The doctors were honest: something similar had never been done before, but it had to be tried», says Sancho. The surgery was carried out in the Arrhythmia Unit of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Barcelonawhich at that time was the only reference center in Spain designated by the Ministry of Health for the treatment of pediatric arrhythmias.
María was transferred there urgently after staying ten days admitted to the neonatal ICU from the Miguel Servet hospital in Zaragoza, without positive progress. «The Servet team got involved, they informed us about everything, but the medication they were giving him did not eliminate the arrhythmias. The cardiologist Lorenzo Jiménez told us that the little girl couldn’t take it anymore and that we had to take it quickly to Barcelona. “It was a shock,” she says.
300 pulses
At that moment, the world of Raquel and her husband Alfonso was turned upside down again after the initial upheaval that learning about the Maria’s heart problems when she was not even born. «In week 20, during a check-up, they saw that the fetus had an incessant tachycardia that made it his heart beat up to 300 beats per minute when the usual rate was 150. That already caused us great concern,” she recalls.
“The wait was horrible. I held on to a ribbon of the Virgin of Pilar and 45 minutes later they called us to tell us that everything had gone well,” says Raquel.
The situation, given the danger, forced Raquel to perform a cesarean section, so that María was a premature baby. «They let me see her in the incubator. I put my hand in and touched it, and I spent the whole day there. When they told us that we had to go to Barcelona we cried a lot, but my husband and I took the car without thinking about anything else, only about her,” she says.
They arrived at the hospital at dawn and that was their first contact with the “angels” who, hours later, were going to save María’s life: the surgeons Josep Brugada and Georgia Sarquella. The little girl is now 4 years old, has a “completely normal” life, a “protective” brother (Mateo, 10 years old), and a scar on her chest that she is very aware of. «She knows that she was very bad because Her heart, as she tells you, was going very fast.», comments his mother.
The vein through which the cardiologists inserted the catheter had a diameter of less than a millimeter and María’s heart barely measured two centimeters.
The difficulty posed by its ablation was that it is a technique that requires great precision in the case of a premature baby, because The vein through which the cardiologists inserted the catheter had a diameter of less than a millimeter and María’s heart barely measured two centimeters.. «The wait was horrible because we didn’t know how long the operation was going to last. I held on to a ribbon of the Virgen del Pilar and 45 minutes later Georgia called us to tell us that everything had gone wellthat we went up to see it,” says an excited Raquel.
A very high risk
It was January 4, 2019 and That good news was going to be the best gift from Kings to the Ortas-Sancho family. «We ran down that hallway as if our lives depended on it and I remember seeing Georgia and Josep at the end of it. The four of us hugged and cried. It was very exciting », she explains. «Mary is alive thanks to them. Since that day, yesI always say that Georgia is my daughter’s second mother. It was a miracle of theirs.», he assures.
“Raquel gave me María and when I had her in my arms she told me to take care of her as if she were my own. It’s something that I won’t forget,” says Dr. Georgia Sarquella.
The case of this little Aragonese girl made the doctor-patient relationship move into a family closeness due to the emotion of the situation. «It was a shock for everyone. I remember seeing them arrive in the middle of the night and having to tell them that ablation was a high risk, but it had to be taken because there was no alternative. We had done something similar, but with a 1,500 gram baby. That was also a situation to improve ourselves», explains Dr. Georgia Sarquella to this newspaper.
«It was a matter of life or death. Raquel gave me María and when I had her in my arms she told me to take care of her as if she were my own. It’s something I won’t forget“says the surgeon, who emphasizes that that “milestone” was possible thanks to the close collaboration between hospitals. «This is something that does not happen everywhere and, in this case, The Servet team, led by Dr. Jiménez, had given us a background on everything and it was a learning experience.and for everyone,” he points out.
The surgeon assures that María’s case He is one of those who has most marked his professional career. “Without a doubt,” she says. Nobody in the Arrhythmia Unit team forgets the story of this family from Zaragoza who arrived in Barcelona one cold January morning.
So much so that a few months ago, on the occasion ofThe 25th anniversary of the unit and coinciding with Brugada’s retirement, the youngest once again won the hearts of everyone in the hospital. «We held a scientific day, where we remembered some of the cases, and we closed with María’s operation. Dr. Jiménez from Zaragoza came and we said that there was no better way to demonstrate how well he had done with María than with her presence. And then appeared. Dr. Brugada started to cry, he hugged the girl in a very beautiful way. It was something very exciting,” Sarquella recalls. «It still makes me want to cry now. Maria is special», he assures.