Mangalore : Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute has achieved another milestone by performing a rare heart surgery for a 30-day old baby for the first time in Mangalore. A press conference was organised on Friday July 11, to inform about the rare surgery.

The doctors team included Dr Sudhir K A, Consultant Neonatologist, Dr Ali Kumble, Chief consultant paediatrician, Dr Yusuf Kumble, chief interventional cardiologist, Dr Chetana Anand, consultant cardiac Anaesthesiologist and Dr Anand K T, Senior consultant cardio Thoracic and Vascular surgeon.

The surgery was performed on the child weighing 3 kgs on July 1, which is also celebrated as Doctor’s day. Earlier the parents  of the child hailing from Kasargod had approached Dr Ali Kumble as the baby had difficulty in breathing and the child had turned blue. The baby was then admitted in the hospital and it’s condition  was stabilised by giving oxygen and antibiotics. But the bluish discoloration did not improve so the doctors suspected a congenital heart defect. Dr Yusuf Kumble after a 2-D echo diagnosed a rare heart defect called TAPVC, TOTAL ANOMALOUS PULMONARY VENOUS CONNECTION/DRAINAGE.

In this defect the pure blood from the lungs instead of returning to the left side of the heart get connected to right side giving a bluish discoloration. In TAPVC, the blood does not take the normal route from the lungs to the heart and out to the body. Instead, the veins from the lungs attach to the heart in abnormal positions and this problem means that oxygenated blood enters or leaks into the wrong chamber.

As the doctors suggested an emergency operation, the baby was put on bypass machine. Blood from the lungs was re-routed to the left side of heart and the procedure took about 3 hours.

After the successful operation the baby has turned pink and has gained 200 gms of weight, said Dr Yusuf at the press confernce organised at the hospital.

The doctors said that the operation was possible as the hospital is well equipped with level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit(NICU) and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit(PICU).