The Diagnosis Is Not the Destination: Building a Foetal Heart Team in Pakistan

Abstract

A few months ago, I sat across from a family holding an ultrasound report that had, after weeks of uncertainty, finally given them an answer. Their unborn child had a critical heart defect. The relief of knowing lasted only a moment. Then the mother asked the question every parent in that chair eventually asks: “What happens now?” In much of Pakistan, the honest answer is still: it depends on where you live, and whom you happen to know. That gap, between finding a diagnosis and knowing what to do with it, is where too many of our families are left standing.

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