Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) patient Rose Da Gama Pinto was recently diagnosed with a heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot.

Rose’s parents began noticing that the one-year-old was turning blue when she became upset. When she later developed a bad cold, doctors detected a heart murmur.

The day before Rose’s first birthday she had a spell in the RCH emergency department. “It was awful she panicked and cried and couldn’t breathe properly and she turned blue,” said Rose’s mum Amanda.

RCH cardiologist Dr Peta Alexander said Rose had a combination of structural heart problems. There is a hole between the pumping chambers of her heart, called a ventricular septal defect, together with narrowing of the outflow to her lungs.

Rose will need open heart surgery to repair the hole.

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