Congenital Heart Defects???

are there any congenital heart defects that are irreversible and result in the child dying extremely young???

Numerous. Fortunately, most are now being treated to increase lifespan and quality of life.

Clearly when you talk about congenital defects that would include not having any heart develop at all- definitley deadly.

Health care has advanced so much that they can pick out defects on ultrasound well before the birth and get you to a centre that can treat the defect. Sometimes they even do a repair in utero.

Some defects would be deadly if you had the baby at home or in a small town, but fixable in a big medical centre. Babies can also survive the surgeries and die of infection, or another complication. Sometimes kids need a series of surgeries as they grow too.

Probably 98% of heart defects are treatable now, and that depends on early detection so your child can be born in a proper setting and treated immediately after birth.

With the advanced medicine that we have developed and the great understanding of the human heart and CHD in general, I think all defects can at least be altered with surgery. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, for example, is a defect in which the entire left side of the heart is underdeveloped, or hypoplastic. Now, without immediate surgery, the child will die in less than a week. Doctors, however, have come up with a 3-step procedure to allow oxygenated blood to get to the rest of the body. There are many children with HLHS that die at a young age, I've known at least five. But there are also older kids who have survived. One of my friends is 12 and one is 15 and they were both born with HLHS. So, no, I don't think any heart defect is absolutely irreversible, but some do require more attention than others.

Congenital left ventricular atresia.

ACTUALLY THEY CANT DIGINOSE ANY KIND OF STENOSIS THROUGH ULTRA SOUND, BUT THEY CAN TREAT IT.

Thanks to the latest innovation that there are no heart defects that can't be repaired.

EVERY CHD can be deadly. There are over 35 known CHD and while some are more serious then others, most children with them will need at least one open-heart surgery. And while the surgery can "repair" the heart it is not a cure and the child will always have side effects from their CHD. My son was born with a CHD called Tetralogy of Fallot and by the time he was 9 months old had already had 2 open-heart surgeries. Now at 20 months he is doing good, but is definitely not your avaerage kid. He tired very easily and if his heart were to get too overworked can start Congestive heart failure at anytime. Children can definitely still die after having their surgeries, even those that are what the docs like to call "fully repaired" can still pass away from their CHD.

There are such a range of CHDs and each one is very different. In Australia heart disease is the major reason for deaths in children (more than cancer) 1 in 100 are born or on average 6 per day in our country. Many of these can be treated successfully through medications or surgery. Our doctors are fantastic and do everything that they can and many children are living longer. Unfortunately not all children survive. My 2 1/2 year old has Pulmonary Atresia, he has had two major surgeries with more to come as he grows. I know that there are risks but the doctors are doing the best they can for him and so far he is going fantastically.