Hospital's 'hole-hearted' approach saves kid's life

Rare surgery conducted on three-month-old infant

Holes in hearts are congenital disorders, which mean that a child is born with this defect. Congenital heart diseases are as rare as three to eight out of 1000 live births and 70 per cent of these don't live to see their first birthday.



Rajbir, a three-month-old boy had a hole in his heart. He weighed 4 kg. As per doctors, a baby with a hole in his heart is not treated until his weight reaches 10 kg. But sadly, most kids with this condition do not survive till that time. Now with new techniques, doctors have started treating kids at an early stage.

Baby blues
Rajbir was recently treated by a team of doctors at Fortis, Escorts. "When we came to know that he has a hole in his heart, we got scared and depressed. People around us kept saying that we should opt for treatment at an early stage as it is risky. We got very confused," said Ram Kumar, Rajbir's father.

According to doctors, the defect is detected within the first four-five weeks of the child's birth. "Usually parents tend to ignore the symptoms and this becomes the reason for the holes in hearts to become inoperable," said Dr Ashutosh Marwah, Senior consultant, paediatric cardiology, Fortis Escorts, Okhla.

Also, these are not common in any particular segment of people. It's found more in poor and malnourished kids but babies from well-to-do families are not prone to these situations.

Wrong connection
"All the blood vessels were connected at the wrong side also. He is being operated and his heart is working well, with a little bit of diarrhoea. After treatment, medication is given for four to six weeks. He is absolutely symptom free," added Dr Marwah. The parents are naturally elated.

"We are so glad that our kid was treated at such an early age. We could not believe this could happen as there are cases where the child did not survive. This is like a miracle for us and our child is perfectly healthy," said Ram Kumar.

Sings
Watch out for these symptoms:u00a0u00a0
>> The child doesn't not take adequate feed from the mother
>> While the child breathes, there is abnormal in drawing of chest wall
>> Abnormally fast breathing
>> Recurrent respiratory tract infection (eg: bad pneumonia)