There's a 40% chance your precious baby will have congenital heart defects...

...but today with advanced technology, surgery can repair almost everything.

Madison was born with congenital heart defects. One was an atrioventricular canal defect—most people just call it an AV canal. She also had a smaller hole in her heart that was repaired at the same time.

Another type of heart hole common in babies with Down syndrome is called ventricular septal defect (VSD). With heart problems comes a potentially serious infection you need to know about.

Heart defects are SERIOUS problems. Not so long ago if your child had a congenital heart defect, there was no hope. Nothing could be done. Babies had an extremely short lifespan.

Today we have the technology to repair broken hearts! Open heart surgery is being performed all over the country every day, with very high rates of success.

Posted below are Madison’s surgery pictures. WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!

I’m willing to share my child's private pictures in hopes of helping another parent who is going through this difficult and stressful time. We saw another baby with Down syndrome and pictures of surgery--it really prepared us in advance.

Yes, she does have a scar, but as you can see in the pictures at the bottom of the page it's really lightened up after only 3 months. Our secret? We used plain ol' vitamin e oil and just look at her before and after pictures.

This is 4 days before surgery. She was still just 7 pounds. Eating and moving were exhausting. Her little walnut-sized heart couldn't oxygenate her blood.

This is right after surgery. It's really freaky to see your 3 month old with a respirator breathing for her. Very mechanical and scary.

Early the next morning...still all kinds of tubes, drains, and wires. At least no respirator. It's a life-saving machine, but I was glad to see it go.

The sheer volume of equipment used in the NICU still boggles my mind. And my baby was hooked up to each and every one of those machines.

Day 2 in the evening. She's looking better but still hooked up to most everything.

Hello, Baby! First time opening her eyes with a good-as-new heart, and I was there to see it!

This is my FAVORITE hospital picture of Madison. It's been 3 days now, and the nurses are remarking to me how fast she's recovering.

Day 4. Some of the drains and other tubes have been removed.

Hooray! They disconnected the pacemaker. The wires are still left in-just in case it needs to be re-connected. She's looking GREAT!

Day 6 at Children's Hospital in San Diego...we got moved to a "regular" room. She looks so TINY in that bed! We were very pleased with the care and service that Children's gave to us. If your child has any type of congenital heart defects or heart disease, I would highly recommend them.

All packed up and GOING HOME!!!!!!! The end of day 6. No more congenital heart defects for us, thank you very much.

A picture of the scars 5 days after we got home. I used vitamin e oil on them every day.

This is Madison 3 months later. You can see her remaining scar--it's really faded now. She's about 6 months here and weighs about 12 pounds...basically doubling her weight. She's one happy baby!

Where do you want to go next?

• Do you want to discover an easy way of lightening scars?
• Find out if your child needs to take antibiotics before seeing the dentist?
• What we do to prevent dry, sensitive skin on our baby. It's not as time-consuming as you think.

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