Kasturba Hospital Manipal: Successful open heart surgery on 4-day-old baby

Manipal: A successful open heart surgery was performed on a four-year-old baby at Kasturba Hospital Manipal.  Dr Arvind Bishnoi, cardiac surgeon of Kasturba Hospital Manipal and his team performed the open heart surgery on a four-day old newborn to correct a congenital defect of transposition of great arteries at the hospital recently. Dr Bishnoi said, “The child is doing well.”

Dr Muralidhar V Pai head of Department of OBG detected some deformities during a regular pregnancy check-up. On cardiac evaluation, the foetus was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries.

Kasturba Hospital consultanats advised surgical treatment immediately after birth. The mother delivered her first baby – a male child which was immediately shifted in Neonatal ICU, where Dr Leslie Lewis and his team took care of the baby. Treatment began as soon as the baby was fit for surgery for they observed that the oxygen in the blood was low, the baby was turning blue. The CTVS surgery team decided to go ahead with surgery on the fourth day of the baby’s birth.

in a surgery that lasted three and half hours, Dr Arvind Bishnoi and his team corrected the transposition of great arteries. Soon after the surgery, the baby’s skin colour turned pink, indicating that the operation was successful. Even the ventilator support was removed after a day. As the baby started breathing normally she was given into the embrace of his mother awaiting arms.

The mother breastfed the child for the first time on the ninth day and after observation, the parents took him to home on the 12th day.

 “It was a rewarding experience to see the smile on the face of the parents after the child became normal following the successful surgery. The baby can now live a normal life,” said Dr. Arvind Bishnoi.

“Dr Bishnoi is passionate about treating children, especially neonates, with heart diseases. Earlier parents of the sick babies had to risk the travel to Bengaluru or metros along with full-fledged medical team and life support equipment to support the baby. After his joining the cardiac surgery department, the hospital has been providing neonatal cardiac surgical care,” said Dr. Arvind Shetty, medical superintendent of Kasturba Hospital while congratulating the team.