Forthcoming Events

ACHD Nursing Conference, Southampton General Hospital

On Friday 19th October, Southampton General Hospital hosted their first ACHD (Adult Congenital Heart Disease) Nursing Conference. The one day conference was organised by Lynda Tellett and Melanie Finch, who are Cardiac Liaison Sisters at the Wessex Adult Congenital Heart Unit, Southampton. The event was supported by Wessex Heartbeat, Encysive, Actelion and the GUCH Patients Association.

Tracey Ellison and I were invited to give a 45 minute presentation entitled 'Living with Adult Congenital Heart Disease - The Patient's Perspective'. Lynda and Mel asked us earlier this year, so we had plenty of time to prepare our presentation. Using Windows Moviemaker we produced a 10 minute movie, with music tracks and video clips to illustrate what life is like for an adult with congenital heart disease and some of the issues/challenges many face. The movie covered important topics which included: 'Quality of Life and Long Term Prognosis', 'Pregnancy and Contraception', 'Lifestyle Issues', 'Scars', 'Education and Employment' and 'Insurance'. We had a lot of information, which we had to condense. Also in the movie was a photo gallery of many different adults with CHD living their lives to the full.

The venue for the conference was the Wessex Heartbeat Education Centre in the new wing of the hospital. The facilities were very impressive indeed.

The first speaker of the day was Dr. Joy Lyon, a lecturer at Southampton University. Dr. Lyon gave an excellent account of the development of the fetal heart and demonstrated how heart defects can arise. The second presentation was given by Melanie Finch, who provided a superb overview to the nurses of ACHD, outlining the history of the discovery of heart disease, surgical and medical developments over the years and associated common heart conditions.

During the lunch period that followed, ACHD Consultant Cardiologists Dr. Anthony Salmon and Dr. Gruschen

Veldtman showed us the 'Heartbeat Suite', which is a medical conference centre that offers the latest multimedia technology including live audio-visual links to three catheter laboratories, the echocardiography suite and cardiac operating theatres. The Heartbeat Suite enables the cardiac team to stay at the leading edge of telemedicine, sharing expertise about diagnosis and treatment with other cardiac centres throughout the UK and across the world. The Heartbeat Suite provided us with an ideal opportunity to have a photo taken with some of the ACHD team.

Following the tour of the Heartbeat Suite we had a very nice lunch and got to meet and talk with some of the nurses and doctors present. There were cardiac nurses from Bournemouth, Leeds, Portsmouth, London and Southampton. It was good to see some familiar faces too, Lesley Jones, Cardiac Liaison Sister from the Royal Brompton Hospital, who was also presenting at the conference and John Richardson, National Director for the GUCH Patients Association, who was there with the GUCH stand.

Before our talk, two other members of the ACHD team at Southampton gave their presentations. Mr. Marcus Haw, a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, gave a very interesting talk on operative procedures for treating adult congenital heart disease. Then Dr. Salmon, a Consultant Cardiologist specialising in Paediatrics & ACHD, talked about advancing technology in interventional cardiology, enabling cardiologists to treat a number of CHDs which previously could only have been treated through open-heart surgery. Dr. Salmon showed us slides of blood vessels being opened with balloons and stents, holes being closed and the more recent percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement (PPVR). It was amazing to see just how far cardiac surgery and cardiology has advanced over the years benefiting patients.

Following a short break, it was the turn of Tracey and me to deliver our presentation. We both spoke about our personal experiences and some of the issues we face, and continue to deal with. We also spoke of our achievements and the good work of the GUCH Patients Association and other patient organisations. Following our personal talks, we played the movie to the audience. During the question and answer session that followed, we obtained much useful feedback from the audience.

As a result of this presentation, we were asked if we would consider providing similar presentations in the future.

Finally we would like to thank Mel and Lynda for inviting us to contribute at this conference and also Julie Bose for her technical input with helping produce the movie.

Jonathan Upton