Mangalore: Team of doctors at Indiana Hospital & Heart Institute, Mangalore gave a new lease of life to a 30 day old child weighing 3 kgs by performing a rare heart surgery first time in Mangalore.

Parents of this child hailing from Kasaragod, Kerala approached Dr. Ali Kumble, Chief Consultant Paediatrician for breathing difficulty and bluish discoloration. Baby was admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) under Dr. Sudheer K A, Consultant Neonatologist. Baby was administered oxygen and antibiotics were given and stabilized. As the bluish discoloration did not improve a congenital heart defect was suspected. Chief interventional cardiologist Dr. Yusuf Kumble did a detailed 2-D echo and diagnosed to have a rare heart defect called TOTAL ANOMALOUS PULMONARY VENOUS CONNECTION/DRAINAGE – in short TAPVC.

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 – this we call 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. Parents were informed about the need for the emergency operation.

Team of doctors Dr. M M Chetana Anand, Consultant Cardiac Anaesthesiologist & Dr. Anand K T, Senior Consultant Cardio Thoracic & Vascular Surgeon performed this complex correction of the heart defect on 1st July, 2014. Baby had to be put on bypass machine, stop the heart and the blood from the lungs was rerouted to left 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 pink, has gained 200 gms of weight and ready to be discharged from the hospital. The surgery could be done at IHHI, as the hospital is well equipped with Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) & Paedatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), which are very essential for the pre-operative and post operative stabilization & care of these kinds of patients. And the doctors are well trained & are of repute.

“With this Indiana Hospital & Heart Institute has become one of the India’s most advanced and preferred cardiac care centre” – Dr. Yusuf Kumble, Managing Director added.