When Sam Bennison was just 14 days old, his tiny heart was failing.
Doctors discovered he’d been born with an aortic coarctation, or narrowing of the aorta, the major blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
Surgery followed soon after to correct the potentially deadly condition.
Born in early December, the Prince George resident recalls wryly, “My parents didn’t have a great Christmas that year.”
Congenital heart patients “a vulnerable group”
People with congenital heart conditions need life-long care. “Congenital heart patients are never fully cured,” says Dr. Jasmine Grewal, director of the Virani Pacific Adult Congenital Heart (VPACH) clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital, BC’s only clinic for adult congenital heart patients. “This is a vulnerable group of patients. They may face complications and need multiple surgeries over their lifetime.”
Roughly one in 100 babies are born with a congenital heart problem in Canada, she says.
As a child, Bennison received care at BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, which sees BC congenital patients from prenatal diagnosis to age 18. Growing up in Fort St. James, almost 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver, he and his family would travel regularly to the hospital for the specialized pediatric cardiac care it provides.
It was a substantial investment of time and money for the family.
Now 23, Bennison has continued to receive congenital cardiac care at the VPACH clinic at St. Paul’s, where children treated at Children’s go after turning 18.
Getting to St. Paul’s a challenge for patients in rural areas
While Bennison was grateful to continue to receive checkups and care, he admits distance was still a burden.
“I’d have to save up around $600 for the trip, and it wasn’t just a one-day affair. I’d have to take a whole week off work for three separate tests, including an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and an exercise stress test to make sure my heart was working fine.” He travelled modestly, staying at a hostel in Vancouver.
But recently, things have greatly improved for him and other such patients from rural British Columbia.
VPACH has just launched a partnership in Prince George, with Bennison among its first patients. It’s the second partnership outside Vancouver. The first launched in Kelowna, the cardiac-care hub for the BC interior, in June 2021. Dr. Grewal says patients seen at these clinics are “moderately” complex. “The most complex patients still need to come to Vancouver because they often require testing you can only get here.”
Preventing patients from slipping through the cracks
Dr. Grewal says the partnership clinics prevent patients from falling through the cracks, since some might find it too onerous to travel to the Vancouver VPACH. And virtual visits do not lend themselves to some of the patients.
Now, she says, “We go out to their communities, work with local healthcare providers, and teach them skills so they can better care for patients.”
She says this roving VPACH is termed a partnership because the rural partners involved are so helpful in connecting with the St. Paul’s teams, scoping out a site for the clinic and checking in patients.
Cardiac care where you live
Several times a year, a St. Paul’s VPACH cardiologist, a registered nurse, and an echocardiogram technician travel to Kelowna and now Prince George to see patients over two to three days. They bring equipment, including an echocardiogram machine, laptops and other items with them.
With the new Prince George clinic, Bennison can now receive regular check-ups closer to home. “It’s been amazing,” he said. “I no longer worry about booking a costly trip just to see my doctor. I don’t have to book off work and I can get the same care right where I live.”
Virani family funding gave VPACH a boost
Dr. Sean Virani, head of the St. Paul’s Division of Cardiology and physician program director for the Heart Centre, emphasizes the importance of the new VPACH partnerships. “There are now more adults living with congenital heart disease than children being born with it,” he says. “Thanks to advances in diagnostics, many heart conditions are detected and treated early, but there’s still a large group of patients who, like Sam, who need ongoing cardiovascular care into adulthood. Our goal with the partnership clinics is to provide them with the care they need without them having to make the costly and time-consuming trip to Vancouver.”
VPACH has benefitted from funding from the Amir and Yasmin Virani Family Foundation, which in 2021 donated to the St. Paul’s Foundation. Previously known as PACH, the clinic then added the “V” to the name to reflect the Virani donation. The funds were earmarked for cardiac care.
Dr. Virani, who is the son of Amir and Yasmin, says his family’s connection to heart disease is deeply personal. “My grandmother suffered from heart disease, and my father has also received care at St. Paul’s.” With that connection, he says, “we wanted to help fund the work being done for people with adult congenital heart disease and advance the priorities of the Heart Centre.”
