Heart Children book...
A practical handbook for parents...
For the past 25 years the Heart Children book has guided parents and families through the heart condition that children may be born with or
acquire, the treatments available, and how to deal with the many medical and social problems that they may have to face. The new edition has been written by parents, nurses, doctors and counsellors.
This fourth edition of the book has attempted to keep pace with the many innovations in the field of pediatric cardiology, which are now preserving the lives that would have been lost a short generation ago.
As well as answering many questions such as when can an unmarried father consent to his child’s treatment, it distils much of the practical knowledge developed in the kitchens, bathrooms and children’s bedrooms by parents struggling with children who won’t eat, sleep, or take their medicine, explaining where to get help, or at the very least empathy.
How to obtain your copy
The Heart Children book has guided parents and families through
Children’s heart conditions, the treatments available, and how to deal with many medical and social problems. The new edition has been written by parents, nurses, doctors and counsellors.
Members of HeartLine Association £6
Multiple copies £7 (includes postage)
Single copy £13 (includes postage)
Send a cheque made payable to HeartLine Association with a clear
delivery address to 32 Little Heath London SE7 8HU
About this Book
The discovery that your child has a heart defect can be a very scary experience. It is at this time, following diagnosis, that parents experience feelings of shock, panic and stomach-churning anxiety. The alarming high-tech medical world into which the family is catapulted often causes further fright.
Although doctors and nurses do their best to describe matters, heart conditions are often so complicated and the surgical procedures so technical, that parents, in the first shock of diagnosis, often go away with an incomplete or erroneous picture of what is to happen.
Of course ignorance breeds fear as unanswered questions emerge. Parents have enough to cope with at this time without taking on needless anxiety. Many other questions arise as your child goes through the process of hospitalisation, tests and surgery, so the second aim of the book is to provide a little comfort here, in giving some gentle explanations and sharing experiences.
Finally, the advancing techniques of paediatric cardiology have enabled many children to survive who would not have done so even 30 years ago. So now, many parents are encountering for the first time the joyful problems of dealing with schooling, physical ability, suitable careers, holidays (flying and travel abroad), driving, insurance, genetic counselling, contraception, marriage, mortgages and a thousand and one situations which are hardly noticed by 'ordinary families'. These produce questions for the family of a child with a heart problem and many of these topics are addressed in these pages.
Summary of Contents
Understanding the heart, prenatal diagnosis, diagnostic tests, the most common heart defects and arrhythmias, feeding, medicines, catheter
procedures, open heart surgery, pacemakers and other devices,
communicating, consenting, concerns and complaints, second opinions, in hospital, at home, childcare, nurseries and school, state benefits and support services, supporting bereaved families, sources of help.
Foreign language versions of Heart Children handbook
We have published Heart Children in 7 languages: Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Italian on the internet at our dedicated website. However, this is in Version 3 only.The translations are a valuable asset to cardiologists and cardiac nurses and also to general practitioners and community nurses who are responsible for communicating this complex subject to parents from minority groups. This is of tremendous benefit to parents who do not speak English and to parents who speak English as a second language.