Cyanosis
If your baby is born with a birth defect and you took Celexa® during your pregnancy, you might be entitled to compensation. To learn more, contact us today.
What Is Cyanosis?
One in 120 babies is born with a heart defect. Cyanosis is an indication of some of these defects. Cyanosis is a bluish tinge to the skin and mucus membranes. It happens because the blood under the skin is lacking in oxygen. Oxygenated blood is red, whereas blood after it releases its oxygen to tissues and organs becomes blue.
Cyanosis in Newborns
In a normal person, blood leaving the heart is ready to supply the rest of the body's organs and tissues with oxygen. It is red because it is carrying oxygen. But in newborns with cyanosis, the blood flows in a different direction because of damage to the heart. This is called right-to-left shunt and causes the tissues and organs in the rest of the body to receive too little oxygen from the blood.
The blue color is most often seen in the child's lips, fingers and toes and during exercise. These signs indicate heart problems.
Types of Cyanosis
Different congenital heart problems cause cyanosis. These include:
- Coarctation of the aorta — a part of the aorta (the major vessel carrying blood from the heart to the rest of the body) narrows and decreases the amount of blood flowing to the lower half of the body.
- Critical pulmonary valvular stenosis — a narrowing (stenosis) of the pulmonary valve prevents the right ventricle (lower heart chamber) from ejecting enough blood into the pulmonary artery.
- Ebstein's anomaly — occurs when the tricuspid valve between the chambers on the right side of the heart doesn't work properly, allowing blood to leak back through the valve. The heart works less efficiently. The condition can also cause the heart to become enlarged and lead to heart failure.
- Hypoplastic left heart syndrome — most of the structures of the left side of the heart are too small and not well enough developed to pump blood out to the body efficiently.
- Interrupted aortic arch — a complete blockage between the ascending and the descending aorta prevent oxygenated blood from directly reaching the parts of the body that are "downstream" from the blockage
- Pulmonary valve atresia — the pulmonary valve which normally is between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery is abnormal and fails to open, preventing oxygen-poor blood from flowing to the lungs to be oxygenated.
- Pulmonic stenosis with an atrial or ventricular septal defect — the pulmonary valve or heart valve that opens to let oxygen-poor blood flow from the right ventricle to the lungs, is narrowed. As a result the blood may push through the defect, flowing in the wrong direction.
- Some forms of total anomalous pulmonary venous return — none of the four veins that carry blood from the lungs to the heart is attached to the left atrium.
- Tetralogy of Fallot — a complex heart abnormality involving four specific defects that prevent enough blood from flowing to the lungs and oxygenating the body's tissues and organs
- Transposition of the great vessels — an abnormal arrangement of any of the four major blood vessels in the heart.
- Tricuspid atresia — a deformity of the tricuspid valve.
- Truncus arteriosus — instead of the normal arrangement of two main blood vessels leaving the heart, there is only one.
Celexa® and Cyanosis Risk
Newborns who as fetuses were exposed to Celexa® late in the third trimester of pregnancy are at risk of birth defects, including heart defects that cause cyanosis. If you were given Celexa® during your pregnancy and your baby is born with a congenital abnormality, you should contact an attorney about your right to compensation.