Month-old baby weathers risky angioplasty well

NEW DELHI: In a rare surgery, doctors at a city hospital performed an angioplasty on a month-old baby who was severely underweight at only 1.8kg. Sana was born with a heart condition in which one of the main arteries going towards the lungs was blocked causing difficulty in breathing.

Doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute say her body was blue when she was first brought to the hospital in October this year. "Her survival was a question. Her body has turned blue due to oxygen deprivation. She has almost stopped breathing and showed signs of a heart condition," said Dr Neeraj Awasthy, one of the paediatric cardiologists who operated upon her.

Sana was born in a Delhi government hospital in September. But her condition began to deteriorate days after her birth and she was referred to Fortis Hospital for further treatment. She was initially put on ventilator and was oxygen dependent for a couple weeks. On further investigations it was found that her right ventricular outflow track was blocked and she required immediately required stenting procedure. But it was a risky surgery, say doctors.

"Trying to operate on a 1.8 kg baby with a slow heart and bad lungs is very risky. After long deliberation we decided to go ahead with the stenting procedure," explained Dr S Radhakrishnan, director of paediatric and congenital heart diseases, FEHI.

The procedure is not a definitive fix for the newborn as. Large stents will have to be implemented as the child grows and eventually open heart surgery will be required once she has reached a healthy weight and is strong enough to endure such a procedure. Nevertheless, the operation can be considered a great success. "Prior to the treatment, the patient had oxygen saturation levels (the amount of oxygen in your blood) around 45%. After the procedure, we recorded levels of 98-100%, which is normal for a healthy person," Dr Awasthy said.