The little battler with a big heart

NICK TOLERTON | 21st May 2010

"Tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary artresia and mapcas" is a big medical mouthful for a wee eight-year-old.

But brave battler Zoe Griffin of Woolston knows well enough what it means:

* Being born with seven different heart defects.

* Needing five major operations already and many smaller procedures, and being anaesthetised at least 20 times.

* And more than two years being fed through a nasal tube when she was an infant.

Zoe is one of more than 360 Christchurch youngsters who will benefit from Heart Children Week that starts on Sunday.

For some fundraisers including her mum Katie Pottinger, it started today. She was in one of the 28 teams of six people who plunged into a tub of icy water in Cathedral Square for the Heart Stopper Challenge that will hopefully raise $20,000.

A pupil at Opawa School, Zoe shrugs off her health issues to do well with her study and to make the most of life, and particularly loves the monkey bars, trampoline, and soccer. She plays in the forwards for the Woolston-Technical ninth graders.

Zoe is in a sporty family - her mum was a Canterbury basketball and cricket age group rep, and dad Daniel Griffin plays presidents rugby league for Linwood.

Ms Pottinger found when she was 7½ months pregnant that her baby had an unusual combination of heart defects, and after Zoe was born at 2.7kg at National Women's in Auckland, she got a quick cuddle before her baby was rushed off to intensive care at Greenlane.

It was the first of many trips to Auckland, where all Christchurch's heart kids have to go for surgery.

Zoe's last major op in December, which came after a scan showed three-quarters of one lung wasn't working, should get her through to 12. She will need at last two more.

A good day for the family is watching Zoe make it across the finish line in the school cross-country or scoring a goal in soccer, said Ms Pottinger.

"And a good day for Zoe is when the words hospital, blood, injection, appointment, or procedure aren't mentioned at all," she said.

"A bad day for us is watching your child unable to breathe on her own and watching a machine keep her alive.

"And a bad day for Zoe is receiving another appointment letter from the hospital. On our bad days Heart Children are always there to support us and understand what we are going through."

Sometimes there are unexpected blessings. She finds it very difficult to shake off any bugs, but when Mr Griffin and three-year-old sister Mya came down with swine flu last year, Zoe escaped it.

* If you want to help youngsters like Zoe in Heart Children Week, dial 0900 4 HEART to give a $20 donation, or text HEART to 469 for a $3 donation, or visit www.heartchildren.org.nz to donate online.