NEW DELHI: A three-week-old baby girl, who was diagnosed with rare heart condition, resulting in a heart attack, got a new lease of life, courtesy a team of doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.
Baby Inaya, from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, had been suffering from a condition called Anomalous Left Coronary artery from the Pulmonary Artery (ALCAPA), resulting in respiratory distress.
The doctors, who tended to the infant, said she experienced excessive sweating and fast and laboured breathing.
At the time she was rushed by her parents to the emergency department of the hospital, her heart had stopped beating.
“The team of doctors treating Inaya managed to resuscitate her by massaging her heart. Intensive care doctors were called in, and they got her heart beating again within 40 minutes. Once the infant’s breathing was normalised, she was stabilized with medicine to support her heart functions,” Muthu Jothi, Senior Consultant, Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said.
According to the hospital authorities, despite going without any cardiac activity or function for 30 to 40 minutes, the infant did not suffer from any perceptible brain damage.
The functioning of all her vital organs was assessed and they were all found working within optimal ranges, the doctors said.
The child was put on ventilator and her parents were told that there was a 50-70% risk that she might not survive.
However, her parents consented to the emergency medical procedure despite the risks.“We took out the blood vessel from the pulmonary artery and trans-located it into the aorta.
"The gap which was left behind in the pulmonary artery because of this was filled with the cardiac covering called the pericardium. Since there was a lot of swelling of the heart post the surgery, we left the chest bone open,” Jothi, one of the team of doctors who performed the surgery on her, said, outlining the sheer complexity of the procedure.