Davik surgery hurdle cleared

Dr. Jose Polido, DDS, operates on Davik Teng at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The work, which included the removal of seven teeth, was undertaken to avoid the risk of infection before heart defect repair.(Jeff Gritchen/Staff Photographer)

Sin Chhon comforts her daughter, young Cambodian heart patient Davik Teng, as the girl comes out of general anesthesia after dental work at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles Tuesday. The procedures cleared the way for the 9-year-old's cardiac surgery in Long Beach.(Jeff Gritchen/Staff Photographer)

Teng, 9, is now a step closer to the operation that will repair her heart.

presstelegram.com
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
03/04/2008

After having seven teeth pulled and eight cavities filled, Davik Teng is ready to take the next step in her journey to have life-altering heart surgery.

Dr. Jose Polido, the head of the Division of Dentistry at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, said Tuesday's oral surgery was a success.

Barring any setbacks, Davik will have open heart surgery on Thursday, March 20, to repair a hole in her heart and provide a new lease on life.

Davik is a 9-year-old girl from a rural village in Cambodia who suffers from a heart defect that doctors in her home country were unable to fix. She was brought to the United States by Long Beach-based nonprofit Hearts Without Boundaries and Childrens Hospital agreed to provide the facilities and

surgical teams for the procedures.

Initially, Childrens Hospital had only agreed to take care of the heart procedure. But when the dental health issues arose and the cost of oral surgery proved prohibitive for the fledgling nonprofit, the hospital agreed to pick up the tab for both procedures.

Because of poor dental health throughout Davik's mouth, doctors decided to treat her dental disease first to minimize the risk of heart infection from oral bacteria getting into the blood.
"It went just as planned," Polido said after the 2 hour surgery, done under general anesthesia.

Polido said the seven extractions were of baby teeth and included the tips of two roots of teeth that
were about to be dislodged. Davik also had one small abscess that was cleaned out.

Doctors had worried that if the infection from an abscess or other bacteria got into the bloodstream, it could lead to endocarditis, or inflammation of the heart valves.

Polido said "within a good couple of weeks" Davik should be ready for the surgery to repair her ventricular septal defect, or hole in her heart.

Left untreated, Davik's heart condition would deteriorate and eventually lead to irreversible lung damage.

According to Dr. Vaughn Starnes, the surgeon who will repair Davik's heart, most people with a condition like Davik's die between the ages of 30 and 35 if untreated.

If all goes as planned, Davik should be up and moving around within three to four days after the heart surgery.

But first, Davik needed the dental work.

Peter Chhun, the executive director of Hearts Without Boundaries, picked up Davik and her mother, Sin Chhon, from the small Long Beach apartment where they are staying in the cold hours before dawn Tuesday.

A sickle moon hung in the eastern sky as Chhun made his way through the light early-morning traffic along the now familiar route to Childrens Hospital. By 7:30 a.m. Davik was ready for surgery and shortly after 10 a.m., she was wheeled into the recovery room.

Davik's mother ran to her child's side and stroked her forehead. At 10:19 a.m., Davik's eyes fluttered open, followed shortly by tears and soft crying.

"I want to go home," were her first words.

Shortly after noon, Davik and her mom were ready to return to Long Beach, having cleared one of the major obstacles left in their journey.