Indian docs repair Pak child’s heart

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 21

Indian doctors have saved a Pakistani toddler who came to them with an abnormal growth of the left heart chamber called the left atrium.

A team of paediatric specialists from Ganga Ram Hospital today announced a successful surgery to resolve the complex problem and said this was the largest left atrium reported among children this age in medical literature so far.

“A 14-month-old child with complex unusual heart disease was recently operated upon successfully at Ganga Ram Hospital. He is a native of Pakistan and was referred for surgery to us due to complex nature of the illness. The baby was brought with inability to feed properly, had recurrent chest infections and could not crawl properly due to breathlessness. He was not able to grow, and weighed only 6.5 kg at the time of admission,” Dr Neeraj Agarwal, Pediatric cardiologist at Ganga Ram said.

Detailed investigations revealed that the left-sided blood receiving chamber of the heart (called left atrium) was hugely dilated and was four times the expected size.

“Also there was a large hole between the lower chambers of heart and the left-sided valve was leaking. We managed the case successfully,” Dr Agarwal said. The patient has been discharged.