Viagra gives heart op tot fresh hope; MEDICINE.A LITTLE boy born with a back-to-front heart who was given just weeks to live has been saved by Viagra.Alfie Oliver's rare condition was so critical his parents were put in touch with a hospice to ease his death. But now they are planning his first birthday party thanks to a team of medics who suggested the little blue pill. Shortly after Alfie was born last July, he was diagnosed with having transposition of the great arteries Transposition of the Great Arteries Definition Transposition of the great arteries is a birth defect causing a fatal condition in which there is a reversal, or switch, in the truncal connections of the two main (great) blood vessels to the heart, the - which meant the position of his aorta and pulmonary artery pulmonary artery n. Abbr. PA 1. An artery that enters the hilus of the right lung, with branches distributed with the bronchi; right pulmonary artery. 2. were reversed. When he was just a few days old he endured a series of heart operations and later suffered a cardiac arrest cardiac arrest n. Abbr. CA A sudden cessation of cardiac function, resulting in loss of effective circulation. Cardiac arrest A condition in which the heart stops functioning. . Mum Tracey, 26, of York, said: "Viagra is such a strange thing for a baby to be on, but it's literally saved his life. It makes people giggle when we tell them - but if it keeps our son alive then who cares?" Viagra was originally developed for heart patients - it opens vessels to allow blood to circulate better. CAPTION(S): NEW LEASE Alfie and Tracey |
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