Dr. Caner Salih, a heart surgeon was effective in keeping Heidi and Luca Ferasin’s baby son Mattia alive but little did the parents had the knowledge they would go on to save his dog that, by chance, had the same heart problem. So the couple cares the dog of the surgeon who cared their son.
About four years ago, when a regular scan exposed Heidi and Luca Ferasin’s unborn son had several heart defects, they knew all too well what fate has in store for them because they are both veterinary cardiologists.
‘A little bit of knowledge is sometimes a bad thing because your mind goes into overdrive,’ said Heidi, 38.
“The doctors couldn’t give me any guarantees about what would happen, or whether the heart would grow properly,” she further added.
Mattia, from Hampshire, was born with critical heart problems and at just six days old had to endure a seven-hour surgery.
Heidi breastfed with no difficulties and Mattia did well for the first few days. But on the sixth day, everything changed. He didn’t want to feed, he cried all the time and there were issues with his heart rate, so Heidi and Luca alerted staff, and the wheels were set in motion for Mattia to have an operation the next day.
One of the most traumatic moments was to sign a consent form for the operation, Heidi said.
Luckily doctors operated Mattia Ferasin in St Thomas’ Hospital in London, saved her son’s life with open-heart surgery. His mother Heidi, said she was overwhelmed with appreciation when he survived and wanted to repay the team at Evelina and at St Thomas’, where her son was born.
Couple cares the dog of the surgeon
Now Heidi and Luca, who are both vets, became close with the medical crew. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Caner Salih told them he had a bulldog “Budu” who was experiencing the same heart defect as Mattia.
After the discharge of Mattia from the hospital, Luca treated Budu at his practice, Lumbry Park Veterinary, in Alton, Hampshire, and discovered he had a ventricular septal defect, a hole in the heart, one of the defects fixed during his son’s surgery.
The couple decided to bring Budu to their practice and surprisingly, successfully treated the pet. His defect closed within a year, which was even more surprising.
Mattia and Budu are now friends for life and have usually met up for playdates.
