NEW DELHI: Two Iraqi girls suffering from cardiac ailments have got a new lease of life after receiving medical treatment at a city hospital, officials said on Sunday.
The girls, Staish Azad Khalil (2) and Naveen Yaseen (7), who were living in a camp for internally displaced people in Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, were critical and would not have survived long without medical attention, doctors at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said.
On their arrival at the hospital, the children were evaluated, and “Staish was found to have a seriously malformed heart condition where half of the heart was missing congenitally, due to which there was shortage of oxygen in her body. She was frequently turning blue and had a hard time breathing properly,” the hospital said in a statement.
After echocardiography and cardiac catheterisation studies, it was ensured that a surgical option could be offered, the doctors said.
“On July’22, Dr Raja Joshi, Chairman, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and his team of doctors performed the first stage of complex repair of heart,” the hospital said.
After surgery, Staish now has safe levels of oxygen in the body and normal breathing. She will return for the second and last stage of surgery after four years, the statement said.
She was discharged from the hospital on July 30 and is ready to fly back to Iraq to celebrate Eid with the rest of her family, the statement said.“Naveen was found to have a medically manageable problem and once therapy was successfully established, she also is deemed fit to fly back home,” the statement said.
Hospital authorities said they were contacted about a fortnight ago by two non-governmental organisations working in Erbil.