Baby Liam loses battle to heart disease

BABY Liam Rootman, who was born with a Congenital Heart Disease, has died.

Liam lived for six months before he was rushed into surgery on Monday, 1 July to relieve compression on his airway as he battled to breathe and needed to be taken off his tracheostomy.

He was intubated through his nose. According to his mom, Candice Wyngaard, doctors found that his pulmonary valve conduit was septic and he had endocarditis.

“They did not know this before the surgery and that it was the cause of his right side heart failure. He actually came through the surgery really well but just after 11pm on 1 July, the day of his surgery, he had a bad breathing episode and his heart stopped beating,” she said.

Candice and Leon Rootman live in Escombe, Queensburgh and in their almost three years together, have suffered tremendous heartache and trauma. They lost a daughter to a heart related disease, Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary atresia and they didn’t imagine that they would lose another child to a similar condition.

“We decided we would like another child and the doctors said our chances were very little that we would have another child with this condition as Mila Joy was negative for Digeorge Syndrome and Down’s syndrome the two conditions associated with this heart defect at times.

“We got pregnant fairly quickly and found out from the foetal specialist that he had a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with Absent Pulmonary Valve and unfortunately this condition affects the airway and lungs in a very severe way,” said Candice.

ALSO READ: Malvern parents’ plea to help baby Liané

The couple aim to continue raising awareness on the disease and encourage parents dealing with similar issues.

“We would like to still be involved in CHD awareness and I am on the KZN Heartkids committee. We are having our first Durban fund-raiser and awareness event on 24 September.

ALSO READ: VIDEO: Pinetown baby diagnosed with heart disorder needs your

“Heartkids support families like ours emotionally and they try help with what little funds they have. If you have myschool cards you can please nominate them as a beneficiary to help CHD families,” Candice said.

Their message to families dealing with CHD is that the disease is terrible and no one has all the answers. “We really feel for anyone going through long term hospitalisation with their child no matter the illness it is linked with,” the couple shared.

Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via Telegram? Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts.

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.

To receive our free newsletter click here.