Doctors at the KLE society’s Prabhakar Kore Hospital saved a baby suffering from a rare condition by conducting a complicated surgery and careful post-operative care.
A 8-month-old baby girl that was suffering from a birth defect in the heart called as “Truncus Arteriosus” was saved by a team of doctors led by heart surgeon Praveen Tambrallimath. Her parents were farmers with limited means from Saundatti village.
The patient was admitted with complaints of breathing difficulty, frequent cough, poor appetite, and giddiness.
Truncus Arteriosus is a rare heart disease estimated to occur once in more than 15,000 live births. This defect could be an outcome of genetic disorders. It is a rare defect of the heart in which a single common blood vessel comes out of the heart, instead of the usual two vessels — the pulmonary artery and aorta.
The only solution is a surgery. In this case, both the aorta and pulmonary artery were coming from the same side of the heart. The surgical procedure involved separating the arteries and ventricular chambers.
Operating on a small baby with low body weight (3.6 kg) is a challenge and needs top order surgical infrastructure, ICU support and surgical skills, Dr. Tambrallimath said. The operation went on for eight hours.
Post-surgical management was even more challenging as the baby’s lung pressure continued to increase and it was kept on a ventilator for two weeks. Post-surgical ICU management amidst COVID-19 pandemic threat was a difficult task. The treatment was offered free of cost under Ayushman Bharath and Arogya Karanataka Yojana.
