NEW DELHI: A seven-year-old Uzbek girl, battling end-stage heart failure, got a news lease of life after she successfully underwent a surgery at a city hospital. Ragena from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was battling with Viral Myocarditis that lead to end stage heart failure since two years of age. There was severe water retention and her liver was enlarged with severe disbalance of functions. She was undergoing treatment in her country but later brought to Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket.
“Ragena had swelling all over her body owning to water retention and an extremely enlarged heart. She was breathless even at resting body position and was also diagnosed with gross heart failure. As a result, she was stabilised with inotropes and was advised a Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD),” said Dr Kewal Krishnan, Director, Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Devices Principal Consultant at the hospital.
Now, Ragena is the youngest recipient of LVAD in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. The LVAD, a battery-operated mechanical pump, is surgically implanted in patient’s chest where it helps the left ventricle in pumping blood to the rest of the body. “In such an extreme situation, where the heart is so weak that it can neither wait for a donor nor an artificial heart, LVAD comes as a positive ray of hope to pull the patient from the jaws of death,” said the doctor.