Toddler’s Heart Handled With Care at CHOC

Jaziel Gonzales is a high-energy toddler who laughs, dances and plays almost nonstop.

“He likes to jump and laugh a lot--a whole lot,” said the 3-year-old’s mother, Candy Vizcarra, watching him bounce on her bed. “He does this all day long, and it’s wonderful.”

Jaziel wasn’t always so active. Until December, two weeks before his 3rd birthday, Jaziel was listless and cranky. A leak between his aorta and lung artery had allowed blood to flow into his lungs, increasing the workload on his heart and enlarging it, said his surgeon, Farouch Berdjis.

“The defect is rather common,” Berdjis said. But fixing it has usually required open-heart surgery, a painful operation with a long recovery period, he said.

Using a new nonsurgical procedure, Berdjis corrected Jaziel’s heart defect, and the boy was home the same day. The procedure gave hope to thousands of children nationwide that they won’t have to undergo open-heart surgery to fix such leaks.

The opening between the aorta and the lung artery, called PDA for patent ductus arteriosus, “is necessary before we are born,” said Berdjis, a cardiologist and director of the pediatric catheterization laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

After birth, the opening is supposed to close on its own. If it does not shut, the heart enlarges and can fail within five to 10 years, he said.

“For one in every 2,500 children, it stays open for unknown reasons,” he said.

On Jaziel, Berdjis performed a “gentler” procedure. He inserted a thin tube less than 2 millimeters in diameter through the groin and up to the heart. A tiny metal coil shaped like an hourglass went through the tube and was placed at the opening.

The coil, called duct-occlud, was developed by cardiologists in Germany. It has been used on about 100 children in Europe; Jaziel is the second child in the United States to undergo the procedure, the doctor said.

“This is cutting-edge technology and treatment,” Berdjis said. “The children are outpatients. It’s gentle, and it saves on cost. It’s finally something that’s good and cheaper.”

Open heart surgery costs an average of $10,000; the new procedure costs about $4,000, he said.

Jaziel’s mother is simply happy to have a healthy son.

“Before this surgery, Jaziel used to have trouble breathing, and it seemed like he was in pain,” said Vizcarra, 25, who lives with her son and 8-year-old daughter in Fullerton.

“When we moved here from Mexico about six months ago, I took him to the hospital, and Dr. Berdjis told me what the problem was and that he could fix it,” she said.

“I am so grateful and feel very lucky that my son got to have this treatment,” she said. “It’s such a joy to see him so happy and full of energy.”