Six months old Mehul (name changed) was born with a rare combination of congenital heart defects - D- Transposition of Great Arteries, Ventricular Septal Defect and Pulmonary Stenosis. This is a very rare combination of heart defects. Due to this complex condition, at 6 months of age Mehul weighed less than 3.5 kilograms. His oxygen levels, at 40-45 per cent were not very good, preventing him from being able to thrive and grow. He was successfully operated at the G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital (GKNM) in Coimbatore. Being a single parent, Mehul’s mother was struggling to raise the funds for this complicated procedure. Genesis Foundation, an NGO that supports underprivileged children with Congenital Heart Defects was able to step in and support the cost of the treatment.
Due to Transposition of Great Arteries, the two major arteries that carry blood away from the heart, the aorta and the pulmonary artery are switched or transposed from their normal positions. As a result, Oxygen-poor (blue) blood is sent to the body instead of to the lungs and Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the lungs instead of going to the body, leading to the body being deprived of good oxygen levels. In addition to this defect, Mehul also had a hole between the 2 lower chambers of the heart causing rich and oxygen poor blood to mix. Also, the Pulmonary Valve of the child was extremely narrow.
The common procedure used to correct this, is the Rastelli Procedure, but Dr Vijayakumar Raju, Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery Director at GKNM Hospital, knew that as Mehul also had a Pulmonary Stenosis, The Rastelli procedure may bring immediate relief, but Mehul could still need more surgeries later in life. He therefore opted for the Réparation à l’Etageventriculaire (REV) procedure. “There was a lot of pressure, the combination of defects this child had required a complex procedure. His oxygen saturation levels were very low, and he had a very poor weight. With God’s grace, the procedure went off smoothly. His oxygen levels are now at 100 and he is doing well now,” said Dr Vijayakumar Raju.
“We are constantly working to ensure that no child with a critical heart defect loses his life because the family did not have the money for the treatment. Every child should have access to the best treatment irrespective of where they live or how much the family earns,” says Simran Sagar, Operations Director, Genesis Foundation. The funds for this procedure were provided by their Institutional donor, Adhyan Foundation.
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