The Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Inquest Report

 

 

Decision to reoperate

A heart catheterization showed that Vinay's problems had not been solved and his condition was deteriorating. The problem could be addressed only by either replacing the valve or fixing the leak. Odim chose the latter option. It was made clear to the Goyals that there was no option left but to re-operate on Vinay to correct the leaking patch. The fact that this was a high-risk operation was clear to them. There was no discussion about trying to transfer Vinay to another heart centre. Indeed, the evidence tends to suggest that he was in no condition to be transferred any great distance.

Nonetheless, one would have thought that the option would have been raised with the family. Furthermore, by the time the Goyals were being asked to provide consent to a second operation, which did not take place until April 18, a second child, Jessica Ulimaumi, had died following pediatric cardiac surgery at the HSC.

 

 

Current Home - Table of Contents - Chapter 6 - Decision to reoperate
Next The case of Jessica Ulimaumi
Previous Concerns of the nurses and the family
Section 1 Chapter 1 - Introduction to the Issues
  Chapter 2 - Pediatric Cardiac Issues
  Chapter 3 - The Diagnosis of Pediatric Heart Defects and their Surgical Treatment
  Chapter 4 - The Health Sciences Centre
Section 2 Chapter 5 - Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in Winnipeg 1950-1993
  Chapter 6 - The Restart of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in 1994
January 1, 1994 to May 17, 1994
  Chapter 7 - The Slowdown
May 17 to September 1994
  Chapter 8 - Events Leading to the Suspension of the Program
September 7, 1994 to December 23, 1994
  Chapter 9 - 1995 - The Aftermath of the Shutdown
January to March, 1995
Section 3 Chapter 10 - Findings and Recommendations
Appendix 1 - Glossary of terms used in this report
Appendix 2 - Parties to the Proceedings and counsel
Appendix 3 - List of witnesses and dates of testimony
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