When she was only six weeks old, Olivia was admitted to intensive care. Doctors found him to have a heart defect. One of the child’s heart valves was failing.
At the hospital, they sent her to intensive care because her heart was leaking. There were two holes in her heart
explains Olivia’s mother, Laurie Suzor-Pleau.
Nearly fifteen operations later, the girl’s situation had not improved.
That’s when an experimental surgery surfaced: the Melody Valve. Until then, this surgery was performed only by Boston doctors from Boston Children’s Hospital.
Fortunately, the doctor in charge of Olivia’s file at the Center hospitalier de l’Université-Laval (CHUL), pediatric cardiac surgeon Frédéric Jacques, had the opportunity to be trained by these same Boston doctors on this specific type of ‘operation.
Severe mitral valve insufficiencies at birth are rare. […] So the type of surgery we did at Olivia’s is something we don’t do often.
explains Doctor Jacques.
The family therefore decided to move forward and Olivia therefore became the first child in Quebec to receive the valve. Melody. Seven years later, she is still holding up.
Tribute to cycling
Anxious to thank Doctor Jacques and the medical team at Boston Children’s Hospital, Olivia’s father, Pierre Nadeau, decided to take his bike and set off on the roads separating his city and that of Massachusetts.
The goal is to pay tribute to the research that was developed in Boston and that Dr. Jacques learned in Boston and which, here in Quebec, was able to save my family.
admits the father.
The opportunity certainly to pay tribute, but also to raise funds for the En Coeur Foundation, which accompanied the Nadeau family during the first years of Olivia’s life.
Pierre Nadeau is accompanied by a dozen friends and relatives during his journey.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Marie-Pier Mercier
Friday morning, accompanied by a dozen friends and relatives, Mr. Nadeau embarked on a journey that will take him to cover more than 600 kilometers in 72 hours.
It’s more than just cycling
says Laurie Suzor-Pleau.
Pierre Nadeau will therefore chain the pedal strokes in the coming days for his daughter, his family and all the other parents who are going through the same situation. History of giving back to others, he explains.
In Quebec, one in 100 children is born with a heart disease or malformation that will require medical follow-up, according to the Fondation En Coeur.
With information from Marie-Pier Mercier
