RED DEER ADVOCATE Friday, Aug. 2, 2013 A3
B.C. girl youngest to have heart pump BY THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON — Muskaan Grewal didn’t know the little motor whirring inside her chest, keeping her alive, was like a medical medal of honour. Last September, when she was just five years old, the brown-haired girl with the toothy grin became the youngest person in the world to receive a special type of artificial heart called a Ventricular Assist Device, or VAD. All she knew was that the invisible machine was keeping her out of the hospital and giving her enough energy to ride a bike and go to school “like a little normal kid.” Doctors at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton also weren’t aware of the amazing feat until just recently, when the HeartWare company that manufactures the VAD told them that is had never had a younger recipient. So Muskaan and her family from Surrey, B.C., were introduced to a throng of reporters and cameras on Thursday — even though the pump is no longer in her body. Doctors explained that the VAD was only a temporary measure, giving the girl freedom from a hospital bed while she waited on a transplant list. Muskaan, now 6, received a real heart in July. The shy girl, surgery stitches and scars peaking out the neck of her flowered shirt, talked quietly about the 10 months she lived with the pump, how she could feel the machine inside her chest and hear it buzzing “like a bee.” A thin tube attached to the pump strung out of the skin near her stomach and attached to a battery-powered controller box, which she carried around in a backpack. At night, when she was sleeping, she plugged it all into a wall in her bedroom. Dr. Holger Buchholz, director of the Stollery’s artificial heart program, said children — even small babies — can get other types of artificial hearts but have to stay in hospital. It’s more common for adults to get VADS and there are about 30 who do each year in Edmonton. Buchholz said there’s also a handful of pediatric patients who get the pumps —the youngest 13 — but none as small as Muskaan. Patients typically have to be at least 27 kilograms. Muskaan weighed in well under that at 18 kg. She was only 10 days old when doctors diagnosed her with dilated cardiomyopathy, a rare condition that weakens and enlarges the heart. She spent years in and out of hospital for
Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS
Muskaan Grewal meets the media with her parents Sukhjit (left) and Harmon (right) at the Stollery Childrens’ Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta on Thursday. Muskaan was introduced as the youngest person in the world to get a special type of artificial heart. She was five-years old and weighed just 18 kilograms when Edmonton doctors inserted the ventricularassist device in her chest last September. treatment and medications and, last fall, was flown to Edmonton when her heart failed. Her medical team debated whether to insert a VAD. They measured her heart, roughly the size of an egg. The pump was slightly larger and wouldn’t fit where it normally sits, under the heart. The Stollery’s chief pediatric heart surgeon, Dr. Ivan Rebeyka, said a VAD had been inserted before in a six-yearold from Berlin, Germany. “We had to move fairly quickly in terms of making the decision to go ahead, because I don’t think she would have frankly survived for more than another week or two.”
When they got the go-ahead from her parents, Rebeyka inserted the pump on Muskaan’s left side and stitched a portion of it into the left ventricle of her heart. It worked like magic. Her parents received more than 30 hours of training: how to change her dressings, watch for signs of infection, replace the battery in her backpack every five or six hours so her heart wouldn’t stop beating. Teachers at her school also received medical lessons. “Of course everybody freaked out,” said Buchholz. But they soon all became confident with the procedures. The hardest part, the doctor said, was getting a child to understand how
to be so very, very careful with the equipment that was keeping her alive. “Of course, with a five-year-old, you have to teach her: don’t pull on it!” One day, when Muskaan was working on a craft, waving around a pair of scissors, Buchholz suggested maybe she should try painting instead. “But in the end, this is what we want — even if my heart rate goes up. We want to give them the best quality of life as possible and make it as safe as possible for them.” Harman Grewal said his daughter is happy to be free of the pump and its backpack. She is to returning home Saturday and hopes to someday soon go swimming and climb a tree.
Teenage girls who went missing while tubing found safe Five teenage girls who disappeared while tubing down the river near Bowden were discovered safe by rescuers after an eight-hour ordeal. The girls, ages 12 to 14, had been floating on tubes and rafts down the Little Red Deer River at Red Lodge
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Work begins on river to help protect High River from future flooding HIGH RIVER — Work has begun on a river that runs along the hard-hit southern Alberta community of High River to help prevent future flooding. The provincial government says scraping is underway in the Highwood River to remove excess gravel, sediment and debris, which will increase the river’s flow. Rick Fraser, associate minister of flood recovery in the area, says rebuilding the town is a priority, but it’s also important to prevent a similar disaster. It’s expected that 64,000 cubic metres of rock will be removed from the river — enough to fill 26 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The rock is to be stored in the area and used in future flood mitigation efforts. The river work is expected to be completed by Sept. 15.
Calgary man sentenced to 90 days in jail for abusing girlfriend’s cat CALGARY — The Calgary Humane Society is applauding a 90-day jail sentence for cat abuse. Robert Habermehl was found guilty of wilfully causing pain and suffering to his then-girlfriend’s cat in September 2009.
Park on Wednesday when they failed to return to their departure location, as prearranged with relatives. Family members searched the area for them for five hours before notifying the park’s conservation officer of their disappearance. Police were told at about 5:40 p.m. that the missing girls were carrying no emergency supplies — or even shoes.
Innisfail RCMP arranged a search around the river, along with a park services ranger and Red Deer County Technical Rescue. This team is trained to complete water-based searches. An airplane was in the process of being dispatched by the Civil Air and Rescue Association when the girls were finally located some eight hours after they went missing. A relative
who had been involved in their search, came across the girls as they were returning to the park. According to Innisfail RCMP, the teenagers were cold and had sore feet, but were otherwise in good spirits. The police press release did not state which community the girls were from, and no officer could be reached for comment on Thursday evening.
The assault left the cat’s intestines hanging outside of its body, and officials determined it had to be euthanized. Brad Nichols of the humane society says it’s not often that people are sent to jail for hurting animals. He says he can only think of a handful of cases. During his sentencing hearing, Habermehl was taken to hospital after telling the judge he was having a heart attack. Habermehl, who represented himself in court, told the judge it was his fourth coronary episode in two weeks. The hearing was rescheduled.
porarily blinded and you’re operating a helicopter, what kind of precarious position that would put ... the pilot, the people inside the helicopter and of course people living on the ground.” Sanche is to appear in court again on Tuesday.
drink the water, or allow pets to drink it, and are even being told not to swim in it. In addition, people are cautioned to limit how many fish from the lakes they consume. In the last month, algae advisories have been issued for several bodies of water including Shiningbank Lake, Iosegun Lake, Snipe Lake, Bear Creek and Lake Isle. People who come in contact with the algae may experience skin irritation, rash, sore throat, sore red eyes, swollen lips, fever, nausea and vomiting and/or diarrhea. Symptoms usually appear within one to three hours and resolve in one to two days, however, symptoms in children are often more pronounced. People who consume contaminated water as a primary source for drinking water can develop more serious illnesses, such as liver damage, over time.
Man in custody after powerful laser beam aimed at Calgary police chopper CALGARY — A Calgary police helicopter pilot was momentarily blinded when a beam from a powerful laser was flashed at the aircraft during a routine patrol. Police say a light from what’s known as a type-three laser was allegedly flashed three times at the chopper as it flew over a northwest neighbourhood in the night. Duty Insp. Guy Baker says officers cordoned off an area and eventually arrested a 19-year-old man. Michael Sanche is charged with assault causing bodily harm and two mischief-related charges under the Criminal Code. He is also charged under the Canadian Aviation Regulations Aeronautic Act. Police say the laser that was used can cause permanent blindness and can even burn skin. “This caused extreme anxiety of our pilot,” Baker said Thursday. “The potential for eye injury was great. “And you can imagine, if you’re tem-
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