Dalbeattie mum inspired to fundraise after her son was diagnosed with heart condition

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Dalbeattie mum has described the day her child underwent open heart surgery as “the worst of my life”.Hannah Kirkpatrick’s son Evan was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy when he was just 11-months-old.The inherited heart condition causes the heart muscle to thicken but it wasn’t until August last year that Evan underwent a septal myectomy, which has helped improve his life.And the time the operation took proved traumatic for Hannah and her husband Christopher.The 40-year-old, who is now preparing to take part in the British Heart Foundation’s Peak District Mountain Bike Ride, said: “His surgery was on August 13, 2022, in Glasgow.“It was meant to take around four to five hours, so we took ourselves off to a nearby shopping centre to distract ourselves.

But seven hours passed and we still hadn’t heard anything.“It was the worst day of my life, waiting and not knowing if he was going to be okay.“We didn’t get to see him until 9pm that night – he had been in surgery for nine hours.

It had taken so long as after initially removing what they set out to do, the surgeons realised they could take a bit more.“They made a small hole in his heart, which was one of the risks, but other than that it went well.”Hannah, a self-employed domestic cleaner, added: “He was only diagnosed with his heart condition by accident.

When he was born he had a bit of a flat head and, while it seemed to be getting better after a couple of months, his health visitor referred him to have a check over by his paediatrician.“At the appointment they spent a long time listening to his heart and I could just tell something was wrong.