Ten-day-old baby gets new lease of life after Heart Surgery

Belagavi: A ten-day old baby gets a new lease of life, thanks mainly to a team of Cardiac Surgeons led by Dr Praveen Tambrallimath, who successfully performed the complex Heart Surgery on the baby weighing less than 2 Kg.

A woman delivered twins (both female) at Goa Medical College, Bambolim, Goa. One baby immediately after delivery had difficulty in breathing and started turning blue. As a life saving measure, the baby was put on ventilator.  Echo examination revealed that the baby is suffering from complex congenital heart disease medically termed as Transposition of Great Arteries-TGA (main arteries of the heart were misplaced).

In this critical condition the child was shifted in an ambulance to Cardiac Surgery Department of the KLE Dr Prabhakar Kore Hospital here.Dr Praveen Tambrallimath, who examined the baby, diagnosed the child is suffering from serious birth defect of the heart that needs supra major surgery. TGA is a birth defect of the heart in which the two main arteries carrying blood out of the heart ? the main pulmonary artery and the aorta ? are switched in position or "transposed (altered)." For such birth defects immediate surgery is the only option. The parents were counseled and consented for the surgery. 

The 8 hour long surgery on a 10 day old baby weighing less than 2 Kg operating on delicate heart which is less than 50 gm was a challenge and involved great surgical skills, pursuance and patience.  The arterial switch operation involved connecting great arteries to the correct pumping chambers was performed. The anomalies in the heart were surgically corrected.

The baby withstood the surgery, for 15 days baby was stabilised in post-surgical Cardiac ICU. Dr Praveen expressed that if untreated, over 50 percent of infants with transposition will die in the first month of life. The baby is operated under ambitious Goan Health program, Deen Dayal Swasthy Seva Yojana (DDSSY).

Jubilant parents & family members of the baby are extremely happy with the successful outcome of the surgery & thanked the personal care extended by skilled nursing staff. The baby is perfectly fine and discharged from hospital and ready to get united with other baby in home at Goa. (UNI)