A team of doctors at a Gurugram hospital saved the life of a one-month-old African baby, who was suffering from a complex congenital heart defect, by carrying out complex surgery.

The baby was brought to Paras Hospital with breathing difficulty and inability to take adequate feeds and records from the home country in which the child was diagnosed with a hole in his heart and other complexities of heart structure.

The parents had lost all hope because no other hospital in Africa was willing to operate on the baby because of the complexity of the case and challenge of operating on a 3kg baby with complex heart defect.

The  baby was evaluated by the Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Cardiac surgery team who diagnosed the patient's underlying condition.

On evaluation, it was diagnosed that baby was suffering from Complex Congenital Heart defect where both great vessels Aorta and Pulmonary Artery was arising abnormally from right ventricle [Double outlet right ventricle defect (DORV) ] with a large ventricular septal defect (hole in the heart). Accessory mitral valve tissue was also present causing severe leakage from Mitral valve (severe MR) and  the main vessel which carries blood to the whole body was small ( Hypoplastic Aortic Arch) causing unrestricted pulmonary blood flow.

 Doctors emphasised that mostly these complex cases require two to three  surgeries to rectify these defects over a period of two to three years.  

The team of doctors had a detailed surgical meeting to look for feasibility of giving the child single stage complete repair of this complex heart defect.

Dr Mahesh Wadhwani, Chief and HOD - Paediatric and Adult Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery, Paras Health, said, “This was a complex case requiring immediate medical intervention. The baby arrived at the hospital with an extremely complex life threatening heart defect. The main challenge was not only to save his life but also to ensure the baby remained healthy. The unique aspect of the case was the surgery performed i.e., Routing the vessels to correct chambers , closure of hole in heart, repairing the Mitral valve and Aortic Arch Augmentation; a complex cardiac surgery. Unlike the usual approach where the procedure is carried out in two stages, i.e., arch repair with PA band followed by intracardiac repair as second stage, in this instance, considering the case's complexity and team's experience, both procedures were carried out simultaneously.”

“The surgery was done successfully and as expected the baby had a morbid postoperative stay in ICU where the baby was well managed, the baby was discharged within nine days, and now leads a thriving, healthy life. Additionally, the team's dedication and expertise, combined with the hospital's cutting-edge technology, allowed us to provide the best possible care to the young patient,” Dr Wadhwani added.

Dr. Deepak Thakur, Senior Consultant - Paediatric Cardiology, , said, "The baby was suffering from an exceptionally rare combination of heart defects. Besides the intricate surgery, managing a small baby 3kg with complex cardiac surgery in the ICU is typically quite demanding and has equally tough challenges as the surgery. In this case, the child spent 7 days in the ICU and was in critical condition. However, with proper preoperative planning and continuous monitoring and prompt intervention on complications post surgery the baby was efficiently treated and was saved.”