Fundraising at the heart of the matter

THREE-year-old Emma McMahon was running around her house in Feakle this week, her big blue eyes full of life, which makes it hard to believe that this bubbly girl has a rare heart condition.

Lending support to Emma in her battle with this condition and to others in East Clare with heart problems were 140 local friends and family who joined together to walk and run a 10km circuit last month as part of World Heart Day.
Organised by Karol McMahon, Emma’s mother, the walk and run was a huge success, raising €4,025 and gave the community an opportunity to give back to the Irish Heart Foundation.
Karol spoke to The Clare Champion about the walk and all that little Emma has come through in the last two years.
“I saw World Heart Day was September 26 on the Irish Heart Foundation website and we always wanted to do something but you hate asking people for money. The walks have been quite popular and so we said we might as well have a look at doing one. We had 120 walkers and up to 25 runners. It went really well,” Karol outlined.
In October 2008, Emma, who was 20 months old at the time, got a chest infection and Karol and her husband, Brian, were over and back to the doctor for two weeks. In that time, Emma came through it and seemed in good health again. However, a week after Hallowe’en, Emma began to have problems with her chest again.
“It was a Sunday night and we brought her into Shannondoc. She was coughing but nothing was coming – she was nearly choking on her cough. Shannondoc sent us to Limerick because her heart rate and her breathing were very high. Limerick then diagnosed her with bronchiolitis and we were there for a week. I was pregnant at the time with my second, Paul, and I was in the maternity with dehydration so I was away from her, which was a nightmare. Emma was discharged on Saturday and I was discharged on Sunday but that Monday, I still wasn’t happy. Something wasn’t right, so we brought her back in,” Karol said.
Due to a bad freeze that night, the hospital kept Emma and Karol in overnight and the following day, as the doctor was doing his rounds, the family were preparing for Emma to be discharged.
“The doctor was running up and down from the nurse’s station. When he came on the scene, he had a team with him and he was listening to her heart. He said to his team, ‘this is a galloper, you’ll probably never hear it again. If Emma doesn’t mind, have a listen. I have to make a phone call’. When he came back, he said he was arranging for an ambulance to bring her straight to Crumlin,” Karol revealed.
She said to the doctor that Emma seemed to be fine and asked if there was a need for an ambulance. The doctor said they could take a chance and drive themselves but when the couple arrived with Emma at Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital, eight medical staff were waiting for them.
“ECGs and echoes were done that night and they kept her in a room next to the nurses’ station. They never alerted us to how bad it was. We thought it was a murmur. The following morning, all hell broke loose and the consultant arrived and brought her straight into intensive care. She was given 48 hours to live and we just didn’t know what to do. They were hoping to induce her into a coma because they would be able to treat her better but they didn’t have to do that, whatever she has in her she fought strong and hard. We were in ICU for the weekend and the following Monday, they got us a bed in the high-dependency unit,” Karol explained.
Around this time, the McMahons learned Emma’s little heart was only functioning at 4%.
“We didn’t know of course what any of that meant. We were waiting for those numbers to go up and up and when it went up to 6% we were ‘woohoo, party time!’. She was at 12% when they released us onto the ward,” she added.
Emma was diagnosed with a condition known as atrial ectopic tachycardia with secondary dilated cardiomyopothy.
“This means she has a really fast heartbeat generated by cells that have almost formed what is like a second pacemaker. The dilated cardiomyopothy is where the whole left ventricle gets enlarged or dilated. Hers was really bad because the two main valves from both ventricles weren’t touching at all. The symptoms of heart failure are so similar to the ’flu with the coughing and fatigue and we found out after that when we got to Crumlin, she was in heart failure.”
Throughout this ordeal, Karol was 22 weeks pregnant.
“It was horrific and I was saying, ‘I wish I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be able to do so much more. But it didn’t matter, I couldn’t do anything anyway. They had prepared me that I would be delivering my baby in the Coombe in April and we were going to be in Dublin for at least eight to nine months so we were moved into Ronald McDonald House, which is just the most fantastic facility in Crumlin. The three of us went up. We made great friends up there. Emma was picking up by Christmas and the consultant came to see us and said that she was happy for us to go home in complete isolation,” Karol explained.
Brian was already making preparations for the family to return to Feakle but two days before they could leave, Emma became ill.
“She got the rotavirus so we were then in isolation in the hospital. It was nearly worse than when she was in intensive care because she couldn’t move a muscle, it really knocked her for six. At the same time, whatever was in that virus when it cleared, she was like a different person. It lifted her again,” Karol recalled.
Although Emma and her parents spent that Christmas away from home, it was a very memorable time for the family as they had a special visitor drop by to cheer them up, actor Colin Farrell.
The McMahons were able to return home shortly after Christmas, albeit in isolation until late February but since then, Emma has gone from strength to strength.
“We were just so lucky. She’s doing great. It is a lifetime condition though. We were told that 33% die within five years of a diagnosis, 33% live fine with medication and 33% can recover spontaneously. At the moment, she is in that 66% of good but we’re hoping she can make the top one. She has been weaned off most of her medication but she is still on her main heart ones but her blood pressure ones and her diuretics are gone,” Karol outlined.
Following Emma’s discharge from hospital, the McMahons joined the cardiomyopothy support group and became involved with the Irish Heart Foundation and both have been of great assistance to them. The family have always wanted to give something back and took this opportunity to get East Clare out walking.
The family have acknowledged the great support they received locally and this week handed over the grand total of €4,025 to the Irish Heart Foundation regional fundraising manager, Anne Riordan.
For more information about the Irish Heart Foundation, visit www.irishheart.ie.