By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter
Eleven-month-old Benjamin Percy grips his father Scott's index fingers tightly. He balances on the carpet, wanting to stand on his own, and glances at a cartoon video.
The lively boy shows no sign of his open-heart surgery - unless you look under his shirt and see
the 10cm scar.
"He's just like a normal little baby," says Mr Percy, a Whitianga pharmacist. "He's healthy and very cruisey.
"The only time he cries really is if he's hungry or jams his fingers in a drawer."
When Benjamin was born last August, he was six weeks premature, weighed just 2kg (4lb 6oz) and was suffering from a faulty aortic valve, the heart outlet from which blood is sent around the body.
At three days old, he became one of the smallest babies to have heart surgery at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland. The valve was opened in a five-hour operation.
Benjamin recovered and returned home, but he suffered heart failure when aged 3 months and was flown back to hospital by helicopter.
That led to a six-hour operation last December in which his pulmonary valve, the heart's outlet to the lungs, was used to replace his aortic valve, and his pulmonary valve was replaced by a donor aortic valve.
He was the youngest patient in New Zealand to undergo this operation, called the Ross procedure.
Although Benjamin was treated at Green Lane, paediatric heart treatment is due to shift to the Starship children's hospital next year after construction of a $24.5 million children's heart unit and related improvements.
After recovering from the surgery, Benjamin has been well, apart from a dose of rotavirus that caused a month of stomach upsets.
"That was a good test for his heart," says Mr Percy.
"At his latest check-up, in April, his heart was the best they have ever seen it. He's off all his medication now."
Benjamin may need more surgery when he is 4 if scar tissue on the donor valve causes problems.
Mr Percy and Benjamin's mother, Treena, say they want to make his life as normal as possible, but realise they will discover his physical limits once he starts walking and running.
In the meantime Benjamin is intent on learning those skills and keeping up with his 3-year-old brother, Joshua.
Says Mr Percy: "He can't wait to get up and run around with him."
By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter
Eleven-month-old Benjamin Percy grips his father Scott's index fingers tightly. He balances on the carpet, wanting to stand on his own, and glances at a cartoon video.
The lively boy shows no sign of his open-heart surgery - unless you look under his shirt and see
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