Published: October 11, 2006 08:16 pm         

12-year-old Harmony resident Shadd Revalee recovering from third open-heart surgery

TERRE HAUTE — Harmony resident Shadd Revalee, 12, got out of intensive care Wednesday in Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis and is recovering from his third open-heart surgery.

“He’s doing excellent,” said Karen Altemiller, the boy’s mother. “He was in surgery [Tuesday] from 7:30 a.m. until about 2 p.m., and I didn’t see him until 5 [p.m.].”

Before his surgery, Altemiller said the boy was terrified and they both cried.

Waiting while her son was in surgery was the hardest part for Altemiller.

“It was OK, I was real nervous and scared,” she said. “The nurse would come around every hour and on the hour, and it made me more and more nervous. When the doctor came, he said the valve fit in perfectly and couldn’t have asked for it to go any better than it did.

“[Shadd] takes morphine every now and then and has stomach tube and IVs galore,” she said.

When a machine in the boy’s private room beeps, he inquires about it.

“He wants to know what people are doing to him and if it’s going to hurt.

“He talks like a robot ’cause he’s scared to move,” Altemiller said.

Revalee, a North Clay Middle School seventh-grader, was born with truncus arteriosus, a congenital heart defect, that occurred when a vessel in his heart failed to separate and left a connection between his aorta and pulmonary artery, Altemiller stated.

During the surgery, doctors upgraded the boy’s leaking heart valve that he has outgrown.



Laura Followell can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or laura.followell@tribstar.com.