A 14-month-old baby from Pakistan, who was suffering from a 'complex and unusual heart disease', was operated at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi in 2016. After two years of treatment, the child is now doing fine.
This case study has been accepted for publication in ‘The Annals of Thoracic SurgeryDr Raja Joshi of SGRH to The Times of India.
The baby had been brought to India with a 'giant heart'. The paediatric cardiologist at SGRH told The Times of India that one of the four chambers of the infant's heart was suffering from a condition called ‘Giant Left Atrium’, ie, dilated, four times the expected size. This was pressing on the nearby airway structures in his chest. There was also a large hole between the lower chambers of the baby's heart, and the mitral valve was leaking as well.
The baby, when he first came down to India, was unable to feed properly, endured recurrent chest infections and would often get breathless during crawling. He was also unable to grow, reported TOI.
Dr Joshi told TOI that it took nearly six hours to operate the child.
“According to available reports, this was the largest size of left atrium for the age reported in world literature.”Dr Joshi
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