A first at IGMC-Shimla: 9-year-old treated for rare heart defect

Tribune News Service

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, February 22

In a first surgery of its kind at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC), the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (CVTS) has corrected a rare heart defect, known as transposition of the great arteries, in a nine-year-old boy.

In this condition, the position of the two main arteries leaving the heart are switched and, as a result, the patient doesn’t get enough oxygenated blood.

“Through this surgery we have corrected the wrong connections of the arteries. Now, the child will receive adequate oxygenated blood like any other normal person,” said Dr Sudhir Mehta, head of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery.

The surgical team comprised Dr Mehta, Dr Seema Panwar, Dr Kunal, Dr Kamal Prakash Sharma and Dr Dinesh Bisht. The transposition of the great arteries is a congenital condition

and should be corrected within a month of the birth of the child.

“The probability of a longer life span is higher if the corrective surgery is done within a month of the birth of the child. In this case, the child has been brought late for the corrective surgery. Nevertheless, the surgery will be quite beneficial for him as he would be able to carry out physical activities more or less normally now,” said Dr Mehta.

In this condition, the toddler gets tired even while being fed by the mother and his skin colour turns blue, mainly hands and lips. “And when the child starts walking, he gets tried very soon due to the shortage of oxygenated blood,” said Dr Mehta.

Until now, the patients with this condition were referred to the hospitals outside the state.

The successful surgery would inspire confidence among the doctors as well as the patients for carrying out these surgeries as and when required at the hospital.

“We are doing minimally invasive surgeries in suitable patients as these are less painful for the patients and cosmetically, too, are less damaging. We need some more instruments for even better results,” said Dr Mehta.

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