Dr Mutai says that a majority of times, doctors are unable to explain the root cause of congenital heart disease as children with the disease are born with it. Research has however related some diseases in parents of a child to presence of the condition in their offspring.
“Women intending to bear children and they have diabetes are advised to have good control of the disease prior to conceiving as children. This is because children born with congenital heart problems have been noted to have been born by diabetic mothers.”
That’s not all. Cancer patients and people with anticonvulsant have also been known to bear children with congenital heart disease.
Dr Mutai however says that the above instances are minimal as during a majority of cases, the reason for the condition is unexplainable.
As far as diagnosis of congenital heart disease in a foetus is concerned, Dr Mutai says that detection is possible but the technology to do so is still unavailable in Kenya.
How can these diseases be treated?
Rheumatic heart disease can be treated through surgery or through intervention. So can congenital disease.
But parents such as Agatha’s are unable to raise the required finds to ensure their children are operated on.
Hence the yearly Mater Heart run, of which Agatha recently became a beneficiary.
“I am a beneficiary of the Mater Heart Run and was operated on earlier this year. I am really grateful as the surgery has given me the opportunity to be free of pain. I am yet to recover but I am hopeful that I will be fine,” Agatha says.
The initiative, which was started in 1996, has benefited hundreds of children with 241 children benefiting from 2015 proceeds only.
CEO of The Mater Hospital Dr Agnes Chege says that the program sees hundreds of children with rheumatic and congenital heart diseases from poor backgrounds get operated on yearly.
“We hope to raise more than Sh100 million that will enable us operate on at least 260 children,” she said.
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