{"id":11794,"date":"2017-06-21T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/06\/21\/survivors-of-childhood-diseases-struggle-to-find-care-as-adults\/"},"modified":"2017-06-21T09:00:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T09:00:22","slug":"survivors-of-childhood-diseases-struggle-to-find-care-as-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/survivors-of-childhood-diseases-struggle-to-find-care-as-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors Of Childhood Diseases Struggle To Find Care As Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kerry Klein<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n As a child, Rachael Goldring had multiple open-heart surgeries to treat her congenital heart disease. At 24, she still sees pediatricians because she’s had difficulty finding the right care in adult medicine.<\/p>\n

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Kerry Klein\/KVPR<\/p>\n

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Kerry Klein\/KVPR<\/p>\n

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Rachael Goldring was born with congenital heart disease. Had she been born a few decades earlier, she probably would have died as a baby. Goldring is now 24, and among a population of patients who present new challenges to a health care system unaccustomed to dealing with survivors of once-fatal conditions.<\/p>\n

Today there are more adults than kids living with some of these diseases, and medical training lags behind. Young adults who can’t find suitable doctors may drop out of care, and their conditions may worsen.<\/p>\n

Goldring’s condition was pulmonary atresia<\/a> with Tetralogy of Fallot<\/a>. She was born without a pulmonary valve directing blood from her heart to her lungs. It’s the condition that talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s baby<\/a> was born with this spring.<\/p>\n

“I had my first surgery when I was 9 months,” Goldring says. “Now, they do it from birth.”<\/p>\n

Her condition has also meant three more surgeries, a heart valve from a cadaver, complicated secondary diseases, and a lifetime in and out of doctors’ offices.<\/p>\n

“I just celebrated my one-year anniversary of staying out of the hospital for the first time since birth,” Goldring says. “So, this year, knock on wood, it’s been amazing.”<\/p>\n