HYDERABAD: In what can be described as a rare and difficult heart procedure, a private hospital in Hyderabad successfully conducted a surgery to save the life of a 28-week-old preterm baby.
A group of doctors at KIMS Cuddles conducted the critical surgery on the newborn - said to be the youngest child to undergo such an operation in Telangana - to close a hole in the heart. The baby weighed just 1.1 kg at birth and had to get a device fixed to close the opening.
"The baby was born on April 21, seven months into the pregnancy, and its survival chance was about 80 to 90 per cent. But as the birth was premature, the neonate was born with a heart condition called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), which is essentially a gap between the two major arteries extending from the heart," explained Dr C Aparna, Chief Neonatologist, KIMS Cuddles.
Dr Sudeep Verma, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist at KIMS Cuddles, further explained that the baby needed breathing support, which was provided through various medical interventions. Moreover, examinations showed that the hole began growing, he said.
"The PDA did not close. Hence we decided to perform the surgery which closes the hole with a device," Dr Aparna added. After nearly two months, the baby recovered from these highly complex sets of surgeries and was discharged.