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SHIREY PITTMAN fears for ber 10-month-old daughier's health, Young Vanessa suffers from patent ductus arteriosus, a heart defect which makes her heart beat dangerously fast.
Vanessa's operation at Vancouver's Children’s Hospital hes been postponed dee to a nursing shortage.

MOTHER ANXIOUS AS HOSPITAL POSTPONES HEART OPERATION
Nursing shortage causes
child to wait for surgery

A SHORTAGE of nurses at Vancouver Children’s Hospital
has resulted in the repiated postponement of corrective
heart surgery for a 10-mouth-old North Vancouver infant.

Vanessa Kazakoff’s mother,
Shirly Pittman, said the latest
cancellation of her daughter's

operation was Thursday, the fifth
since Vanessa was diagnosed last
November as suffering from the
congenital heart condition, PDA
(Patent Ductus Artcriosus).

“This is driving me crazy,” the
30-year-old mother said. *‘{’m real-

By TIMOTHY RENSHAW
News Reperter

ly upset. I get all psyched up and
then...[t's such a letdown."’

PDA is the failure of the ductus
arteriosus to close after birth. The
blood vessel, which provides ox-
ygen from blood to fetal Jungs in
the womb, normally closes

automatically when a child is born.

The hearts of infants suffering
from PDA beat twice as fast as
those of normal babies because the
open ductus allows too much
blood to get into the lungs.

Apart from increasing heart
stress, PDA also raises suscep-
tibility to chest infections, speeds
fatigue and slows infant develop-
ment.

Major complications from PDA
can take years to surface, but Pit-
tman said Vanessa has already
been placed on antibiotics three

times to combat chest infections.

"She catches cold so easily,’
Pittman said. *‘And it scares you
to death every time, thinking she’s
going to develop pneumonia.”’

Pittman said she has been advis-
ed that Vanessa should have the
corrective surgery done before her
first birthday, but thus far each
time the scheduled date for the
operation at Vancouver Children's
Hospital arrives, Pittman has been
told no beds are available.

But Children’s Hospital
spokesman Sue McAuley said the

real problem faced by the hospital
is a shortage of nurses not beds.

She said that while the actual
number of nurses at tht hospital
has remained constant, 2 higher
percentage are needed in such
specialized and critical care areas
of the hospital as its special-care
nursery, which handles referrals
from all over the province.

There are currently 12 beds clos-
ed at the 240-bed facility because
of the nursing «nortage, McAuley

See Hospital
Page 3

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