Baar,21.07.2014

Tough Hearts Conference starts

The Tough Hearts Conference began at the Eckstein Centre in Baar on Sunday. It has been organised by the Cuore Matto Association, which helps many of the 25,000 people Switzerland living with the consequences of having been born with a congenital heart defect.
 
One person who knows all about what this is like is Karin Christensen of Zug. Anyone looking at her would never know she was born with a cardiac defect and has undergone two major operations in her life. Now 36, she is beginning to notice some of the long-term consequences of the surgery.
 
Christensen, who has Danish roots, works as a project manager in Zurich, having previously studied economic science. When her parents were told she had been born with an abnormality of the tricuspid valve, they were not sure whether she could be operated on at all. The condition meant that there was a lack of oxygen in her blood causing her to become easily exhausted.
 
She said that, as a child, she did not feel particularly affected by it, after all, she had known nothing else. She had her first operation involving the insertion of an artificial heart valve at the age of six and then a bypass operation at the age of 17. "What with the pre and post operative examinations, I spent about 6 months attending hospital appointments that year," she said. "Some of my teachers were very good and gave me the grades I had achieved the previous year."
 
Until two years ago, Christensen (second photograph) has been able to live a fairly normal life, though of late, as mentioned, she has been noticing some of the long-term effects of cardiac surgery and has developed arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, for which she has to take medicine. It was this which led to her joining the Cuore Matto Association.
 
At the conference, which continues until Friday 25 July, cardiologists from all over Europe as well as sufferers will be able to attend a number of lectures and workshops about such matters as living with pain and emotional distress, though a number of exciting leisure activities have also been organised. It is hoped  international contacts will thereby be fostered and the public will become more aware of how such people are affected.
 
Further details about the conference, which has been sponsored by a number of pharmaceutical companies based in the area as well as the Zug Cantonal Hospital and the canton itself, can be found on www.toughhearts.ch.