A Kirkcudbright boy is set to travel to Glasgow with his mum for a vital heart operation – for the second time in four weeks.
Mason Gordon is booked into the Royal Hospital for Children to get his pacemaker replaced later this month.
It will be groundhog day for the 10-year old – he was all ready to be wheeled into theatre on January 20.
But the surgery had to be postponed at the last minute after his Covid test – taken the previous day – came back positive.
Now Mason’s mum Ruth is hoping this time around the lifeline procedure will go ahead without a hitch.
She told the News: “The operation has been rescheduled and now it’s supposed to be February 18.
“Mason doesn’t understand everything but he knew he was going to hospital so they could fix his heart.
“Then he was made to come home because they had not managed to fix it.
“You are very geared up for a major operation – and now we have to do it all over again.
Ruth added: “I’m apprehensive but the operation needs done.
“My mum came up with us last time and she’ll be there again to give us a hand.”
Ruth had believed Mason’s pacemaker – which regulates his heartbeat via tiny electrical signals – would last longer.
But it has not proved to be as durable as first hoped and now a new one is needed.
She said: “They have been keeping track of it in Glasgow with regular appointments.
“It seems to be a dodgy one and is losing six months of battery every month.
“It was supposed to have a life expectancy of 15 years – but last Christmas they said it needed replaced.
“We went up to hospital on January 19 the day before the operation.
“They did a Covid swab on Mason and he was admitted to the ward. The following day they did blood tests and all the usual stuff.
“Mason had nothing to eat or drink and was in his gown ready for the operation.
“Then at the last minute his Covid test came back and it was positive. The nurse said they had been waiting all morning for the result.
“He had no symptoms – I just thought they had made a mistake.”
Mason was diagnosed with atrial-ventral septal defect when he was an infant.
Children with the condition have holes in the membrane between adjoining chambers of the heart which cannot function properly.
The little boy needed open-heart surgery to repair the defect when he was just 16 months old.
But his condition deteriorated and he had to be resuscitated then spent six weeks in intensive care.
Ruth said: “Since then his pacemaker has been monitored at home and relayed straight to the hospital in Glasgow. Fingers crossed everything will be fine.”
