An expert team of cardio-thoracic surgeons and paediatric consultants at the Malar Hospital in Chennai has successfully performed a rare heart surgery on a barely 2.5 months old baby who was battling for life due to 'Acute Heart Failure'. Sriya, the baby, hails from the suburb of Chennai, was saved by the team of doctors.
Informed sources from the hospital said that so far only four or five such successful surgeries were performed all over the world.
"Sriya, the youngest infant in India to have corrective surgery for valve leak and heart failure was brought to Escorts Heart Institute at Malar Hospital in an extremely critical condition. Emergency diagnostics showed no arm or leg pulses with extremely low blood pressure levels. She was hardly breathing and had developed slow and irregular heart rate. Acid levels in her blood were very high and left sided Mitral was deformed with severe leakage. Her valve leaflets were also deformed. Her Lung pressures were also very high" they said.
According to the hospital sources, when the baby was brought to Malar in such a critical condition, the expert team of paediatricians, cardiologists and cardiac intensivists immediately took charge of the situation. The team rapidly resuscitated Sriya with special IV drugs and was put on ventilator support.
After stabilizing her condition in Neonatal ICU, the child was taken for an emergency heart surgery by chief cardiac surgeon Dr K R Balakrishnan.
According to the doctor, rapidly developing heart failure leading to cardio-respiratory arrest and circulatory collapse is rare in infants. The mortality rate in such cases is very high due to complexity of the case.
"There are 10 Children who are dying everyday due to lack of an efficient and early diagnosis and Referral system. There is an urgent need to have efficient and high tech neo natal ICUs in suburban and rural areas need Good Neonatal ICU's," Dr G Prabhakaran, chief paediatrician and neonatologist said.
The team of medical experts who played a crucial role in reviving Sriya's condition included Dr G Prabhakaran, chief paediatric consultant, and neonatologist and Dr R Ravikumar, cardiologist and interventionist, Dr Suresh Rao Cardiac intensivist.
Escorts Heart Institute at Malar Hospital, recognized amongst the most renowned cardiac centres in the country, has surpassed its own benchmarks and raised the bar of cardiac services available in Chennai even higher. The hospital has one of the most advanced paediatric heart surgery and paediatric intensive care units in the country, comparable to the best in the world.
Services available at the centre includes invasive and non invasive cardiology and cardiac surgery entailing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), paediatric cardiac surgery, cardiac health checks, angioplasty, port access surgery, minimally invasive surgery, valve replacement surgery and EP studies.