VIJAYAWADA: When an 11-day-old baby girl was brought on a ventilator to the city-based Andhra Hospitals, the chances of her survival were bleak as she was not only prematurely born with a congenital heart disease, but also weighed only 750 grams. The doctors wanted to perform a surgery, but deferred it as it would be complex to do so on a baby who was underweight.
However, after putting the baby on ventilator and providing intensive care treatment, they performed the surgery successfully, giving a new lease of life to the newborn.
According to information, the baby, born to Ratna Kumari and Prasad from Narsapuram of West Godavari district on May 2, was diagnosed with congenital heart disease and was brought to the city-based hospital on ventilator on May 12.
“We immediately put the baby on ventilator and started intensive care treatment. Our paediatric cardiologist and other doctors evaluated the condition and confirmed the diagnosis of patent ductus arteriosus with pulmonary hypertension. But, they deferred the surgery as the baby was underweight. However, even though it was extremely difficult and complicated to perform the surgery on such a tiny baby, we successfully did it on the 28th day of her life,” said Dr PV Rama Rao, the head of children’s services, said at a press meet on Tuesday.
The doctors added the baby was put on ventilator for 21 days and respiratory support for three days. “Now, the baby is 61 days old and is doing well. She weighs 1.25 kg now and is ready for discharge in a few days.
This is for the first time in Andhra Pradesh that a surgery on such a tiny baby was performed successfully,” managing director of the hospitals, Dr PV Ramana Murthy, said.
The cardiologist team who were a part of the surgery were Dr J Sreemannarayana, Dr Vikram, Dr Dilip, Dr. Ramesh, while the neonatal intensive care team included Dr P V Rama Rao and Dr Bhoojata.