Doctor saves siblings with same rare heart defect | Health

A surgeon credited with saving a little girl from a deadly heart defect just saved another member of the same family.

Balien Albrecht appears healthy except for the open heart surgery scar on his tiny chest.

"It looks like it's barely there," said his mother, Jackie Cosio. "Just a scratch."

Balien was born three months ago with a defect that could have killed him if it had been left undetected.

The blood vessel that links the newborn's lung to his heart wasn't connected normally. It might have gone unnoticed if his parents hadn't insisted on tests, and returned to the tacoma team that saved their first born.

"I was thinkin', 'Here we go again,"' Cosio said.

Balien's 2-year-old sister was also born with holes in her heart. Doctors at Tacoma General Hospital discovered her heart defect after a screening that measured oxygen in her blood. Not all hospitals conduct the painless test at birth; Balien was born at one in the Tri-Cities that doesn't.

"It's not supposed to be genetic, but I had it and my daughter had it," said Balien's father, Chris Albrecht.

"I was scared he wouldn't make it through surgery, but thought if Juliana could do it, he could do it," Cosio said.

The kindred cases are a rarity that until now, Dr. Ronald Woods had only read about in surgical journals.

"It's pretty unusual that two children have exact same anomaly, and that I would replace both of them," he said.

This time, the family knew what to expect, yet familiarity didn't eliminate fears.

"I had this sense with Julianna that she'd be OK, but i didn't have that with him,' Chris Albrecht said.

But one week after surgery, and he's all smiles.

"He came out healthy and stronger than ever," said his father.

Balien healed even faster than his sister, who is now healthy but not always happy about having to share her parents hearts.  

Doctors say odds are, the brother and sister can now live normal lives and won't need more operations.