Jodhpur: Doctors saved the life of a nine-day-old girl by conducting a rare heart surgery in Jodhpur. The girl was suffering from a rare disease of low oxygen level wherein enough oxygen was not flowing to her lungs. This was for the first time that such a surgery was conducted here, doctors said.
The surgery was performed in the pediatric cath lab in the pediatrics department of Mathur Das Mathur (MDM) Hospital in Jodhpur. Hospital superintendent Dr Vikas Rajpurohit said that the girl was born in AIIMS-Jodhpur and was suffering from this rare disease which could have been life-threatening if not treated on time.
"Her oxygen level had gone down to 40-45 per cent. The doctors at AIIMS contacted Dr JP Soni at MDM Hospital. Following which, the child was immediately admitted from the incubator to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Her atrial septum was widened by BAS procedure in MDM cath lab. This was the first such cardiac surgery that was performed on a newborn," Dr Rajpurohit said.
After the procedure, the oxygen level of the child rose upto 80-82 per cent. She was stabilized and sent back to AIIMS NICU. Now, her health condition is stated to be much better. Rajpurohit congratulated the pediatric cardiology department for the successful surgery.
MDM Hospital spokesperson Dr. Jairam Rawatani said that the operation was performed in emergency and free of cost. Due to lack of oxygen, the newborn was turning blue, he said.
Dr. Vikas Arya of Pediatric Cardiology Division said that in this disease, the veins carrying blood to the body and lungs are interchanged. "If the hole in the atrial septal is small, then the oxygen level of the child is very low and the child goes into multi-organ failure due to lack of oxygen," he said.
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Thus, balloon atrial septostomy procedure (widening of the atrial septum by balloon) has been performed as a palliative intervention method, he added.
