Lola's Story

Baby LolaThanks to the efforts of trained sonographers, Lola was diagnosed with a life-threatening congenital heart disease whilst still in the womb.

Early knowledge of the problem allowed doctors to talk to her family and prepare for a safer delivery in the right place at the right time. This was followed by a life-saving operation in a specialist unit to fix her heart.

Thanks to this, Lola is able to live a normal, active life.

Most babies are not so fortunate, and two thirds of babies with serious congenital heart disease are not detected by the current national screening programme.

Our aim is to bring the benefits of early detection to many more babies to give them a better start in life.

Since 2002, Tiny Tickers has provided training in 20% of all UK maternity hospitals (to around 500 sonographers so far) and we campaign nationally for our training to become standard, so that improvements in screening for CoHD will be available for all.

 

Priorities

  1. To ensure that babies with serious congenital heart disease (CoHD) have a better start in life
  2. To improve the detection, diagnosis and audit of CoHD before birth, through national minimum standards
  3. To ensure best practice in the care and treatment of babies with CoHD and their families, from before birth, and through all stages of life
  4. To reduce inequalities in antenatal care for mothers and their babies