Rare heart surgery saves Nigerian kid

NEW DELHI: Doctors at a city hospital saved a six-month-old Kenyan national who  was suffering from a rare cyanotic congenital heart defect known as Taussig-Bing anomaly. According to doctors, just four days after his birth,

Emmanuel was diagnosed with this heart defect and as his condition worsened, he was referred to national capital for surgery.

Explaining about patient condition senior consultant, Paediatric Cardiothoracic surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Dr Muthu Jothi said, "When Emmanuel came to Apollo, he was already cyanotic, which means that he had bluish discoloration of skin due to lack of oxygen in his blood. On examination, it was found that his respiratory rate was below normal at 20 breaths per minute. At the hospital, he suddenly underwent respiratory arrest. The attack was so severe that the child also had a cardiac arrest. His condition was pretty dire due to which he was put on ventilator and shifted to cardiac ICU.”

Taussig-Bing anomaly is a malformation of the heart in which there is transposition of aorta to the right ventricle which in normal case should originate from left ventricle. Doctors pointed that patient pulmonary artery was also wrongly positioned into the right ventricle. This is called double outlet right ventricle defect. Further investigation, it was found out that there was also an interrupted aortic arch (block in the aorta).

The child underwent the surgery which was performed by Dr Jothi and his team — Dr Manisha Chakrabarti, senior consultant, Paediatric cardiologist and Dr Reetesh Gupta, senior consultant, paediatric intensivist.