Marissa’s story: “Esophageal atresia is never going to define me”

Marissa Waite lives in the smallest town in Massachusetts, but she has a big story to tell. When her mother Vicky was pregnant with Marissa 13 years ago, an ultrasound detected esophageal atresia (EA), a condition where the esophagus isn’t connected to the stomach. Vicky was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the remainder of her pregnancy. “I’m a take-charge kind of person. When I was pregnant, I thought, ‘I’ll make all the decisions for my baby.’ But when complications arose, I realized I couldn’t make these kinds of decisions alone,” she says. At that point, Marissa’s care team was born. Double diagnoses: Esophageal atresia and ventricular septal defect For weeks, Dr. Wayne Tworetzy and colleagues from nearby Boston Children’s Hospital walked to Brigham and Women’s to check in on their patient in utero. At birth, Marissa was put on life support and five days later, she was transported to Boston Children’s. There she received a feeding tube while her team of physicians came up with a plan. As is sometimes the case with EA, Marissa had a ventricular septal defect (VSD), a hole in her heart’s lower pumping chambers. Her doctors needed to decide if they would work on her esophagus first or her heart. They decided to begin with a novel balloon catheterization technique to stimulate growth of the esophagus and wait to see if the VSD would fix itself. Marissa at 6 hours old Dr. Steven Fishman explains, “Marissa was born missing most of ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: All posts Our patients’ stories esophageal atresia GERD Steven Fishman VSD Wayne Tworetzky Source Type: news