Jody Ang, Singapore

#heartanomaly #paediatric A detailed scan at week 20 of my pregnancy revealed a mild issue with my baby's pulmonary valve. I proceeded to consult Cindy Hia 2 days later in hopes of getting a specialist's opinion. The scan took over 40mins, though throughout this time, nothing was shown or explained to us. Then, the verbal diagnosis she delivered started with what my husband and my occupation are, as the cost of treatment would be high. Then she moved on to a clear folder with drawn images of the heart condition, and concluded that with this condition, the life expectancy is 40-60 at best and multiple open heart surgeries are inevitable. She continues to talk about the possibility of genetic disorder, and told us to do an amniocentesis if we are looking to continue this pregnancy. We trusted her expertise and diagnosis, and left her room utterly distraught. All the while, we did not see any imagery of the heart scan nor receive any written report from her. As we took the next few days to decide on termination of our pregnancy, albeit with the thought of seeking a second opinion running through our heads, our gynae called us and referred us to another specialist. We proceeded to do so, in order to make a sound and resolute decision. To our surprise, the new specialist told us it was a mild issue and his diagnosis concurred with the detailed scan results. We then went on to see 2 other specialists before we drew any conclusion. At the same time, we requested for Cindy Hia's report to be sent to us few days after the visit to her clinic. The first response we got was that the report was going to take a week to be done. My experience with all other specialists was that they would refer to imagery scanned on the spot and explain to me the heart condition, along with report issued on the same day at the end of the visit - totally contrary to Cindy's. After i questioned why the report would need so long, I received it in the next couple of hours. In the written report, the content was significantly different from what was verbally told to us. Accuracy of the diagnosis aside, the entire scan to delivery of the results appears to be vastly different from other specialists' practice. In fact, i have revisited her clinic to confront her on this issue, yet i believe you have a right to know about my experience. If you are in doubt, please seek a second opinion. We almost lost our child wrongfully because of the diagnosis that was told to us by her that day.