Doctors fix heart defect in 9-day old Goan baby NT Staff Reporter Panaji Feb 8: A new-born baby girl from Ponda with heart defects received a new lease of life following a complicated but successful surgery on her to correct the defects by a team of doctors, led by Dr Joseph Xavier who is a consultant cardiac surgeon at Manipal Heart Foundation at Bangalore. The girl was born on December 10 but was soon diagnosed to be suffering from a defect called transportation of great arteries, which lead to oxygen rich blood being sent back to lungs instead of going to body and oxygen poor blood from body being circulated back to body rather than to the lungs, said Dr Joseph addressing a video press conference. The girl, the first infant from Goa, was successfully operated upon on December 19, barely nine days after her birth and discharged after 15 days stay in the hospital, he said adding that the standardised operation performed on the baby lasted about seven hours.
He also said that transportation of the great arteries was the most common cyanotic congenital heart lesion present in the first week of life of new born and affects 2-5 per cent infants, who have congenital heart disease and could be detected by echo-cardiography and corrected by arterial switch operation. He also said that the operations on newly born babies have to be performed to precision in the first week of birth, with coronary artery which is about 1 mm thick has to be properly stitched, as any error could lead to serious consequences, leading to the death of children. Dr Joseph also said that post operative nursing care by skilled nurses was also highly necessary for complete recovery, so also other medical attentions. He also said that post operative complications could arise if no proper case was taken. He said that success rate has reached up to 95 per cent over the years with the expertise gained by the doctors over the years. He also said that now the mortality rate was barely 5 per cent, which has come down drastically from 25 per cent earlier. The arterial switch operations offer longer life expectancy but there was a slightly greater risk of death from surgery itself, he said adding that this increased risk was due to the difficulty of relocating the tiny coronary arteries. There are only seven hospitals in India which have facilities and expertise to correct the defects, said Dr Joseph, who comes to the Manipal Hospital at Dona Paula for consultations in the last week of every month. He said that the girl would lead a normal life and follow-up diagnosis was needed to be done every year. He also said that tele-medicine department started at various centres of Manipal hospital enables him to carry out follow up checks on patients treated by him and that there was no need for patients to visit Bangalore. He also said that all centres of tele-medicines, including those started in North East, would be linked through satellites by the end of March this year. The father of the infant, who was present at the press conference, told reporters that he was overwhelmed by the care his child got at the hospital, which saved her life. He said that service at the hospital was excellent and that the government's medi-claim scheme came handy in getting the infant operated. The family has been experiencing traumatic life over the years, as the first child, also a girl, born to them was suffering from leukemia and was being treated at Tata Hospital in Mumbai. The father of the girls who was working in Gulf has been on extraordinary leave for last one and half year.
