Baby Diagnosed With Heart Defect Before Birth Recovering Well

DENVER (CBS4) - A baby born with a serious heart defect is recovering well. His family is grateful to doctors at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, who diagnosed the problem before birth and corrected it with the latest technology.

Landon Alexander Delaney's heart wasn't right -- he had a rare defect. If it hadn't been detected early, he could have gone home from the hospital and turned blue as he struggled to breathe.

But Landon's heart problem was discovered when his mother got sick.

"I've never been so scared in my life," Landon's mother Beverly Dobson said.

Landon was born with a congenital heart defect called pulmonary atresia. The valve that connects the heart to the lungs was completely blocked. That meant blood couldn't flow to get oxygen. It's a life-threatening condition, but doctors were ready to help.

Dobson was 6 months pregnant when she went to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center for kidney stones. On a routine ultrasound, high-risk pregnancy Dr. Richard Porreco discovered her baby's problem.

"They were lucky that she had kidney stones at this time otherwise we wouldn't have seen this," Porreco said.

Three months later Landon was born. Two days later he was back in the operating room. Through a tiny heart catheter pediatric cardiologist Dr. David Miller burned a hole in the abnormal valve and then enlarged that opening with a balloon.

But the procedure wasn't enough. Surgery was then done to place a small tube to bring more blood to the lungs.

Pulmonary atresia is rare -- Landon is one in 10,000 in the medical world. But he is one in a million to his mother.

"I feel blessed," Dobson said. "He's definitely my miracle."

The hope is Landon can go home to Sterling in about 2 weeks. His cardiologist at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children says his prognosis is excellent.