Sydney baby born with back-to-front heart recovers after surgery

With a heart that was back to front, baby boy Patrick Bennett endured 15 hours of surgery where his heart was stopped so that surgeons could fix the complex condition.

He’s the baby born with a “back-to-front heart” who needed a marathon operation known as a “double switch” to save his life.

Now little Patrick Bennett is recovering from the extraordinary surgery that saw his heart stopped for 15 hours.

While he faces a long recovery, his family is delighted to see him smile again after a nightmare battle to save their son.

Patrick was born with a rare heart defect called congenitally corrected transposition of the great artery (CCTGA), where the heart’s lower half is reversed.

“It essentially means his heart is back to front,” mum Loren Bennett, 34, said.

Patrick Bennett was born with a “back-to-front” heart. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Just one week after his first birthday, Patrick, the youngest of six boys from Molong west of the Blue Mountains, underwent the marathon surgery at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. He also needed a hole in his heart fixed. While surgeons stopped his heart to operate, he was put on a heart-lung bypass machine called an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

“He was in surgery for 15 hours. His heart was stopped, it felt like the longest day of our lives and the later it got, the slower the time went,” Mrs Bennett said.

“He had a 5mm hole in the centre of his heart, so they closed that and did the double switch and changed the top two arteries around on the heart and then they changed the bottom two vessels.

Patrick Bennett after his stitches were taken out.

“It was scary, we had the possibility he wouldn’t make it and the possibility for being on the heart-lung bypass machine that he would come out with brain damage. So it was very stressful.

“We just sat at the doors of the intensive care unit where he was going to come out.”

At 11pm, Patrick was wheeled back into intensive care with his chest still open in case surgeons had to go back in.

“He didn’t look like our little boy, he was very swollen and his chest was still open and that stayed open for five days,” she said.

“He had tubes and wires everywhere and was on the breathing machine, it was hard to take.”

When their precious boy woke on day six, he suffered delirium and drug withdrawals and, worst of all, he did not recognise his parents.

“He didn’t recognise me or Aaron any longer and he couldn’t move,” she said.

“His eyes were open but it was like no-one was there, so that was hard to take as they said once he came off the ventilator we’d have our little boy back — but we didn’t.

“He was like that for about three days and it might have been brain damage. You’d talk to him and he would not acknowledge us at all.”

Patrick Bennett with his parents Loren and Aaron at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, where he underwent major heart surgery. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Patrick Bennett with his cousin Liliana, 18, and brothers Samuel, 14, Riley, 11, Hunter 9, Alex 6, and Dustin, 3. Picture: Cec Tilburg

But all that changed last Sunday with a visit from his siblings.

Patrick’s five brothers, aged three to 14, and his cousin Liliana — who has lived with the family since her mother tragically died — came from their Molong home to visit.

“They all came down on Sunday and we got to take him into the garden and them being there, he was just a different kid, it flicked a switch,” she said.

“He is starting to have smiles which is so nice, we missed those. He’s doing really well, his heart seems to be doing well.”

His recovery has begun but it will be a long journey.

To help, go to gofundme.com/f/little-heart-warrior-patrick