A rare hurt surgery was performed by a team of doctors of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai, last week. A 13-day-old newborn was admitted to the Hospital after the baby was suspected with a heart defect. The baby was born from the interiors of Maharashtra. The newborn appeared to be breathing hard after birth and transferred to Somaiya Hospital where the paediatricians suspected a heart defect. They obtained chest X-ray that showed the baby’s heart, liver and stomach were left-right reversed.

Dr Swati Garekar, paediatric cardiologist from Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital rushed to perform a portable echocardiogram on the baby in Somaiya Hospital’s NICU. Garekar said, “Timing is everything in babies with heart defects. A delay in diagnosing or a delay in treatment can prove fatal for the baby”. Treatment for the heart condition was surgery. The parents arranged some funds for the surgery, meanwhile, the hospital management agreed to bear the entire cost of the surgery of Rs 2.5 lakh.

Dr Suresh Rao, chief paediatric cardiac surgeon at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, lead his surgical team to perform a highly complex open heart surgery on the newborn. “Having done more than 200 such surgeries in the newborns, this was still a challenge as the left and right portions of the heart were inverted. So this surgery took more time and effort than usual”, Dr Rao said.

Dr Smrutiranjan Mohanty adds, “The baby’s weight of only 2.5 kg was not the issue, we are capable of handling any newborn with a heart defect. However, what was required especially here was 'sheer precision' in operation, neonatal perfusion and high skilled anaesthesia and post operative intensive care.”

The baby is now 20 days old and is in the step down unit of the Children’s Heart Centre of the hospital. The baby is feeding well and is expected to be discharged home in a few days.