'Cheap, easy, lifesaving': Proposal would require testing infants for heart defects

Shortly after birth, Aiden Moody was breathing fast and appeared pale, his mother said. After he left the hospital, the symptoms got worse. He was rushed into open heart surgery weeks later after doctors found a serious heart defect. Now 4, Aiden is developmentally delayed and fed through a tube. His defect could have been discovered right away if the hospital had done a simple test that can catch heart defects sometimes missed during physical exams. The test, called pulse oximetry, would be required for newborns under a proposal in Wisconsin. New Jersey became the first state to require the screening last month. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 7/12)