New Delhi, July 6 : A year-old baby from Tanzania was blessed with a new lease of life after doctors here successfully conducted a complex surgery to treat him from a rare congenital heart disease.
Baby Fravianous was suffering from Hemitruncus where he did not have his right lung and the blood vessel that carries blood to the organ and also had a big hole in his heart, said the doctors from Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.
"When we first saw the patient we knew that this will be a high-risk surgery but we decided to go ahead and operate as the child would not survive without the surgery," said Muthu Jothi, Senior Consultant - Pediatric Cardiothoracic surgeon from Apollo, in a statement.
"A normal heart has four chambers and four valves, where one blood vessel carries blood to the body and the other one to the lungs.
In this case, the patient had no right lung and no blood vessel going to the right lung.
"He had only left lung and the left pulmonary artery arising from the aorta.
Normally the oxygen saturation levels are around 95-100 but as the child had recurring chest infections came in with a saturation of 35," Jothi added.
The team of doctors first closed the hole in the baby's heart and then detached the left lung blood vessel coming from the aorta after which they engrafted a tube made of cow's veins known as "Contegra", between the left lung blood vessel and right side of the heart.
"The veins also have valves which we used between the right heart and the lungs.
Now, the contegra is supplying blood to the left lung. As the patient had only one lung, he took a long time to recover," Jothi said.
The baby, who was off the ventilator, was put back again for about 10-12 days because of breathing issues.
According to the doctors, he took more time to recover as he had only one lung.
"The patient needs to be on medication for some time and needs proper care as he just has one lung to perform all the functions," Jothi added.
--IANS
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Source: IANS
