The Citizens’ Voice – By Robert Swift, 09/25/2013
HARRISBURG – As her son Jack played by her feet, Lisa Scarfo of West Scranton urged passage of legislation Tuesday to require screening of newborns for congenital heart defects so other children can have life-saving care like Jack did. “If it were your child, you would want this test,” said Scarfo at a Capitol press conference highlighting Rep. Karen Boback’s bill to require a pulse oximetry screening for all newborns in Pennsylvania. Five-year-old Jack is a congenital heart defect survivor. He had open-heart surgery at three months to address the defect and will require lifelong monitoring of his heart, Scarfo said. Jack was the child chairperson of the American Heart Association’s Northeast PA Start! Heart Walk in 2011. “This bill is essential because, right now, many heart defects in newborns are going undetected,” said Boback, R-Harveys Lake.
Pulse oximetry screening is described by the American Heart Association as a non-invasive, painless, fast and low-cost test for low blood oxygen concentration, an indicator of a critical congenital heart defect. About 300 infants with an unrecognized critical congenital heart defect are discharged each year from newborn nurseries in the United States, according to the heart association. If detected early, many heart defects can be surgically repaired and 85 percent of neonates who undergo surgery will reach adulthood. The cost of this test ranges from $1 to $4, while health care costs from complications of circulatory collapse resulting from an undiagnosed defect can be significant, said Boback. The Federal Department of Health and Human Services is recommending making the test mandatory for newborns and 20 states have enacted laws requiring it. Boback’s measure got a boost from a House committee chairman who promised a vote next month. “We are going to move this bill out of committee,” said Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bensalem, chairman of the Human Services Committee.
