As she entered her third pregnancy, Shannon thought there would be minimal surprises. But a routine ultrasound changed everything when it revealed that something was wrong with her baby boy’s heart.

Several agonising weeks later, a second scan confirmed that her baby had a rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect – Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). Then came another devastating blow: her unborn baby boy, who she would name Tasman, would have little to no options in their hometown of Tasmania once born and they would need to rely on life-saving care for his little heart from somewhere else across Australia.

TGA occurs when the two main arteries leaving the heart are reversed, meaning that oxygen-rich blood can’t travel through the body properly. It is a condition that can lead to heart attacks, strokes, multi-organ failure and sadly, death. Without urgent intervention immediately after birth, life expectancy can decrease significantly, with 50 per cent of children born with this devastating condition not surviving beyond their first month.

To give little Tasman a chance at survival, Shannon and her family relocated to Melbourne for the last few weeks of her pregnancy. This big but important change ensured that their precious baby boy had the best chance of surviving and access to the world-leading care found at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). However, when Tasman was born at 39 weeks, everything moved incredibly quickly. Their little boy needed urgent care, leaving his parents with only fleeting moments to hold him before the Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval (PIPER) team arrived.

This specialised, philanthropically funded statewide service transfers critically ill babies, children and high-risk pregnancies from hospitals across Victoria, ensuring they reach the advanced, life-saving care they critically need. For Tasman, that meant getting to the RCH immediately. There, this tiny newborn baby would undergo his first life-saving emergency procedure.

“I got a quick cuddle with him because as soon as he came out, the PIPER team did their thing… then I got to have another quick cuddle before he was taken up to the theatre a couple of hours after his birth to have a balloon inserted into his heart to open up his valve,” Shannon shared.

This procedure, known as a balloon septostomy, was critical in keeping Tasman stable before a second surgery could take place. The procedure made it possible for his heart to get much-needed oxygen, increasing the amount that was mixing into his blood.

A week later at just seven days old, Tasman underwent open-heart surgery to ‘switch’ his two great arteries. An intensive surgery for a baby that small. It came with great risk, filling the parents with indescribable fear and anxiety, but was critical to saving their newborn son’s life.

Tasman recovered in the RCH’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for 5 days following his open-heart surgery. The recovery was long but now, just three months after his cardiac surgery, Tasman is is back home in Tasmania hitting all his developmental milestones, with his prognosis excellent.

“Essentially, Tasman should live a normal life. There will be no restrictions to what he can or can’t do physically or any increased risks for later in life,” Shannan explained.

The care that saved Tasman’s life was only possible because of the world-class expertise at the RCH. Every day, children from across Victoria and around Australia rely on this exceptional standard of care to give them the best possible chance at a healthy future.

Shannon could not be more grateful for the generosity of donors for helping ensure children and families across the country can receive the best possible care when they need it most, wherever they are.

“Everyone from the RCH was incredible – from the clinicians and nurses to the lactation consultant. We received support we didn’t even know we needed,” Shannon concluded.