A CT hospital saved a child with specialized surgery. Decades later they saved her baby the same way

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, May 7, 2025
By Pamela McLoughlin

Connecticut doctors saved Megan Heggland’s life through open heart surgery when she was 12 years old and years later did the same for her infant daughter, who is now 7 years old.

But one doctor at Yale New Haven Hospital went beyond technicalities of medical training to give Megan hope and “reassurance” while she was pregnant with her daughter, Harper.

While Megan Heggland was pregnant, an echocardiogram done in utero at another facility frightened the doctors, who informed Heggland they were shocked by what they saw and told her she could terminate the pregnancy up to 24 weeks, she said.

“They said, ‘we’re concerned, it looks severe.’ They were startled by what they saw and said they hadn’t seen anything like it,” Heggland said.

But Heggland said she and her husband decided they were going to fight for baby Harper and went to Yale New Haven Hospital for another opinion.

It was there they found hope and “reassurance” in Dr. Dina Ferdman, who would ultimately become Harper’s cardiologist. Ferdman is co-director of Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital’s Fetal Care Center and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.

Ferdman looked at an echocardiogram, took hours with Megan and explained every detail about Harper’s heart, drew a picture and reassured the young mom to be.

“She was good at dealing with me, a panicked mom,” Megan said. “She was the calm in the storm — she was so wonderful.”

Heggland said, in fairness, the doctor who did the first echocardiogram wasn’t a specialist — another lesson she took out of this.

Harper won in her parents’ fight to save her.

She was born weighing 9 pounds and would need open heart surgery at 5 weeks old because it became apparent she wasn’t thriving.

It’s likely she’ll need another surgery in the future, mom said.

But for now she’s a healthy 7-year-old with no restrictions other than what her parents tell her she can’t do, Ferdman said. Harper eats chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, takes taekwondo, belongs to a trail running club and joins in the family’s many outdoor activities.

“She’s really tough. She’s a very self aware, easy going kid,” Megan Heggland said of Harper. “We’re big in living who you are. It is what it is.”

Ferdman said, referring to Harper, the “best part” about being a pediatric cardiologist “is getting to see her now.”

“I like the dynamic of working with the entire family — getting to be there to talk about what it means for the child,” she said. “You would never know what she went through when she was a baby.”

The family now lives in Vermont and the Heggland mother/daughter have so much faith in Yale New Haven Health’s Heart and Vascular Center that they travel back for their cardiology check ups.

The congenital heart defect Megan Heggland had as a child is considered to run in families and Ferdman said they assume the condition was passed to Harper in that way.

Megan Heggland, 39, had her surgery in 1997 after she would start turning blue after horseback riding. Her heart condition/murmur was discovered by the pediatrician during a sick visit when she was 4.  She had a murmur.

Ferdman said echocardiograms are done in pregnancy routinely in pregnancy if a mom has a history like that of Megan Heggland. Her first child, a boy born two years before Harper didn’t have any heart issues.

The mother and daughter had “similar” heart conditions, Ferdman said.

Harper had an atrial septal defect, a form of congenital heart disease, while Megan had an unusual form of atrial septal defect, or ASD, known as a primum ASD. She also had cleft, or partial separation, in her mitral valve.

Megan Heggland’s specialist is Dr. Robert Elder, director of the Adult Congenital Heart Program at Yale New Haven Health’s Heart and Vascular Center and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.

He said like many adult patients with congenital heart disease, Megan Heggland for many years after surgery did not have a cardiologist specializing in congenital heart disease.

Now that she’s back at Yale New Haven Hospital, Elder oversees her care.

“We have this saying in our field that repaired is not cured,” said Elder.

“Patients with congenital heart disease are at increased risk of complications, heart rhythm problems, heart valve problems and there is data that suggests if you follow with a specialist in this area, you can prevent or anticipate some of those complications. So, I think finding a specialist who knows about their unique congenital heart disease is important.”

Megan Heggland said, “It says a lot that we travel three hours each way to stay with a team of doctors.”

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“The cardiology team at Yale is just so personable. They’re flexible, they’re knowledgeable and they care.” she said.

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