KOCHI: The 21-day-old infant, undergoing treatment at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), is on a slow yet steady path to recovery. His health condition having improved, the child has been taken off the ventilator. According to doctors, the child has been breathing comfortably after being taken off ventilator support, but will be under observation in the ICU for over a week.
The baby was diagnosed with congenital heart defect, including ventricular septal defect (a hole between the pumping chambers of the heart ventricles), coarctation of aorta (narrowing of the main vessel supplying the body), bicuspid aortic valve and aortic valve stenosis.
Last week, the infant underwent a heart valve surgery and has since been under observation. "We have been constantly monitoring the baby's condition and it has improved considerably from earlier stages. However, in such complicated cases, we require more time to monitor the health of the patient after being taken off the ventilator," said R Krishna Kumar, Head of Paediatric Cardiology Department.