Mangalore: Indiana Hospital & Heart Institute gives new lease of life to 30-day baby

By Robert DCosta
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 11 Jul 2014: The team of surgeons at Indian Hospital and Heart Institute, here gave a new lease of life to a 30-day child weighing 3 kilograms by performing a rare heart surgery first time in the city.

 

The parents of this child hailing from Kasargod, Kerala approached Dr Ali Kumble, chief consultant pediatrician for breathing difficulty and bluish discoloration.  The baby was admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) under Dr Sudhir K A, consultant neonatologist.  The baby was administered oxygen and antibiotics were given and stabilized.  As a bluish discoloration did not improve a congenital heart defect was suspected.  The chief interventional cardiologist Dr Yusuf Kumble did a detailed 2-D echo and diagnosed to have a rare heart defect call Total Anamalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPAC).

 

In this heart defect the pure blood from the lungs instead of returning to the left side of the heart gets connected to the right side of heart – giving a bluish discoloration.  In this baby it was connected to right heart through coronary sinus – its called cardiac type of TAPVC.

 

For the child to survive it needed a correction of the defect at the earliest, otherwise baby would not have survived.  The parents were informed about the need for the emergency operation.

 

 

The team of surgeons Dr M M Chetana Anand, consultant cardiac anaesthesiologist and Dr Anand K T, senior consultant cardio thoracic and vascular surgeon performed this compledx correction of the heart defect on Doctor’s Day July 1.  The baby had to be put on bypass machine, stop the heart and the blood from the lungs was rerouted to lieft side of heart.  The operation took about 3 hours.  It was an herculean task to perform this complex operation, as it was being done for the first time in Mangalore.

 

Now the baby is healthy has gained 200 grams of weight and ready to be discharged from the hospital.  The surgery could be done at IHH, as the hospital is well equipped with level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), which are very essential for the pre-operative and post operative stabilization and care of these kinds of patients.  And the surgeons are well trained and are of repute.

 

‘With this Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute has become one of the India’s most advanced and preferred cardiac care centre,’ said Dr Yusuf Kumble, managing director.