Rare heart surgery performed on 2-month-old

PUDUCHERRY: A rare heart surgery has been performed successfully on a two-month-old girl at JIPMER here. Sadhana was born with congenital heart block in which the heart did not have the capacity to generate electrical impulses naturally. Her heart used to beat at the rate of 40 per minute instead of 100-120 per minute. The baby also had a large persistent ductus arteriosis, in which the blood from the left side of the heart mixed with that of right side through an abnormal blood vessel.Sadhana is the second child of a Court employee K Saravanakumar and Sivapriya. The child’s condition was noticed by Sivapriya after she began to suffocate while being breast-fed. The parents consulted a local doctor, who advised them to rush their baby to JIPMER. The JIPMER doctors, who attended on the baby, put the survival chances of their daughter at about 1 per cent. Despite this, they performed the surgery successfully and corrected her abnormal heart condition.Saravanakumar, who hails from Melbhuvanagiri and Sivapriya, when contacted over phone, profusely thanked the doctors for “performing a miracle” to save their child.The cardiothoracic surgical unit headed by Dr KSVK Subba Rao with his team of doctors made all possible efforts to resuscitate the child with initial stabilisation of the condition with a temporary pacemaker.After a few days, she was taken for surgery to fix the abnormalities and implanting a pulse generator.