My patient this week was a peds patient with pneumonia. He had a history of open heart surgery to correct a congenital defect called Tetra of Fallot.
I looked up the defect in my med-surg book and on a couple Internet resources, but I don't really understand what it is and why it has an impact on a patient with a respiratory disease years after correction. I (vaguely) get that the defect causes oxygenation problems, so anything that impairs gas exchange would be a problem, but even after surgery?
