Yee Win was born with a single ventricular defect. Ventricles are the lower chambers of the heart and normally, there are two ventricles, one of the left and on the right. Single ventricle defects occur when only one ventricle is fully developed, while the other is underdeveloped or missing completely.

Single ventricle defects are rare, affecting only five out of 100,000 newborns and are also the most complex to treat as they need more than one operation.

‘’On the day he was born, the doctor told me he maybe couldn’t survive. It was unbelievable this was happening to me and my family,” shares Yee Win’s father, Mr. Tan.

‘’I always told my relatives it didn’t matter if the baby was a girl or a boy, as long as my wife’s pregnancy and the baby was healthy,”’

At only 1 year of age, Yee Win has gone for two surgical procedures, including PDA stenting and a Blalock-Taussig (BT) shunt. “After his second procedure, suddenly there was no heartbeat. He was gone for 20 minutes before they brought him back to life,” Mr Tan shares of the experience. He is scheduled for another surgery in a few weeks.

Since the procedures, Yee Win has been doing much better than before, though he always gets tired easily. Yee Win’s favourite show to watch is Cocomelon. Mr Tan says he hopes Yee Win can stay strong and to always be happy.

“We always spend time with him because of what will happen in the future. We keep positive always that he will stay with us for the rest of our lives,”