Health1 min read

We thought my daughter had dengue. She ended up needing heart surgery

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Qi Le, who had previously been healthy and active in ballet and wushu, fell ill in May with symptoms mimicking dengue. When hospital screenings for dengue and other illnesses returned negative, medical staff identified her condition as endocarditis, an illness affecting only three to 10 individuals per 100,000 each year. Following a 10-day hospital stay for testing, she underwent roughly a month of outpatient intravenous drug therapy leading up to the required heart procedure.

Key points

  • A severe bacterial infection can easily be mistaken for common tropical illnesses like de…: A severe bacterial infection can easily be mistaken for common tropical illnesses like dengue fever.
  • Endocarditis damages heart valves and can require invasive surgical intervention to repai…: Endocarditis damages heart valves and can require invasive surgical intervention to repair or replace them.
  • Even healthy and athletic teenagers can suddenly develop life-threatening internal bacter…: Even healthy and athletic teenagers can suddenly develop life-threatening internal bacterial heart infections.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

At just 17, Max Ee's daughter Qi Le needed heart surgery no one saw coming. He says having to make a critical decision about her future confirmed his belief that life is unpredictable.

Recently, my family experienced the kind of plot twist in life that is every parent’s worst nightmare.

You know how it goes: Everything is running smoothly, when suddenly, life throws a curveball at you and you think: “This was not meant to happen.”

For my wife and I, that moment occurred in May this year, when our daughter Qi Le was suddenly and unexpectedly diagnosed with a rare heart condition.

At only 17, Qi Le, our oldest child, has her whole life ahead of her. And what a life it’s shaping up to be: She’s a bright polytechnic student studying engineering who’s also active in wushu and ballet.

Up until May, she was fit, and as far as we knew, perfectly healthy. She had never shown any symptoms of a serious health problem.

So, when she developed a fever in May, we didn’t think too much of…

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