Benign heart murmur

[Jkms]

My child has a documented heart murmur that was found benign approximately 3 years ago. I included the cardiology report when submitting medicals. My panel doctor informed me he had to submit under a different category for this child due to issue. Would a benign issue with no cardiac defect cause concern in anyone’s experience?

[JandM]

Probably not, but it's not the panel doctor's responsibility to pass it. The medical will almost certainly be referred.

[Jkms]

Thanks, the panel doctor did not pass it on. He suggested that I supply the documents that proved that we had already investigated the murmur and it had been found to be benign and not a medical issue. We got these forms from the cardiologist that we had already seen a few years ago. Hopefully we don’t have to put our little person through more tests

[JandM]

It isn't the panel doctor who refers it. Medicals are scanned by computer when arriving at INZ, and anything outside the norms is sent to be looked at by a human being (who can tell the differences a computer can't, like the fact that 0.001 outside a range doesn't matter, or, we hope, that previous tests have established that something is benign). Whatever is obviously fine is accepted, but anything that first human look-over doesn't 'get' is then properly referred to a Medical Assessor, whose job is to understand the applicant's state of health, and that it won't cost the NZ Health Service too much to be acceptable. I hope that your previous tests will do the trick, but it's possible that someone may ask for an up-to-date letter from the specialist - that's something that you might be able to get and send in now, to pre-empt some of the process.

[Jkms]

Thanks for the detailed response. I will have the specialist review again maybe and write a new letter.

[BoerieNZ]

I can assure you that a benign heart murmur will not be an issue for immigration, but they'll most likely ask for an echocardiograph report that states that it's benign. So whether or not they'll ask you for more documentation is not something I can answer, what I CAN answer is that a benign murmur will not be an issue, so you don't have to worry about it.

[Jkms]

Thanks. I did supply the report from when he was assessed a few years ago that showed completely normal heart structures. I am just hoping we don’t have to make our little person go through more tests. At least an echo isn’t invasive I guess.

[Jkms]

As an update, we were not referred for this issue, I guess being proactive and submitting the previous specialist report clearing the issue was a good idea. We never heard anything about the murmur.