Reader’s Opinion | Children waiting for heart surgery are not just numbers

Opinion|Reader’s opinion

In the media has been written for a long time about the difficult situation of children’s heart surgery in Hus. The challenges of intensive care for children have been seen in the queue for heart surgeries.

The media has updated the figure about the length of the queue. However, pediatric heart surgeries are not just numbers. Behind each number is a child and his family.

My child was operated on in January at Hus heart surgery. A child’s heart surgery is a huge deal for the whole family. It changes everyday life completely. During the half year of waiting, life and thoughts revolved around the operation. You want the best possible treatment for your child, at the same time a major operation brings with it many concerns.

Twice I have had to walk down the endless hospital corridor away from my child after leaving him to be sedated and operated on by professionals. In those situations, life becomes narrow and being a parent makes you small.

Surgery the needy child is in the center, but the whole family is always involved. On the day of the surgery, the teenager in our family cried inconsolably in my arms, fearing for his sibling. When you have to have a conversation with your own child about whether his younger sibling can die, we are dealing with fundamental issues. When comforting and encouraging the child, you have to swallow your own worries and fears.

After surgery, it doesn’t get easier right away. Seeing your own child put to sleep on a ventilator is difficult, even though you are extremely grateful for the care you received. The parent’s heart is on the sidelines when the child submits to continuous examinations in the bed ward. Being sick of painkillers, he doesn’t fear or fight back, but accepts his fate as a small patient in a big hospital.

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A child’s heart surgery is a huge deal for the whole family.

Junior the aim is to solve the shortening of the heart surgery queue by transporting children to Denmark for surgery. Going through the whole mentally difficult period in a foreign country seems like an unfathomable thought. It’s great that the children get treatment, but it’s inexcusable that they can’t get it in Finland and on time.

Grateful after the heavy surgery, I felt that my family had been privileged. However, taking good care of a child cannot be a privilege, but should be everyone’s basic right.

As long as adequate funding cannot be guaranteed for children’s intensive care and heart surgeries, I hope that everyone who decides on health care resources will think about families who fear every day for a child who needs surgery, instead of numbers.

I hope so that they think of siblings who have the worry of their little sister or brother’s health on their shoulders. I hope they think about small patients who cannot be guaranteed the realization of basic rights.

Children who need intensive care are not just numbers and statistics. Decisions are about their whole life.

Heart child’s mother

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