A team of doctors in Delhi gave a three-year-old Pakistani child a new lease on life. He was suffering from a rare heart disease, found in only one among 200,000 children.
Mohammad Bilal was suffering from Uhl's anomaly. The muscles on the right chamber of his heart were weak and enlarged, which increased pressure on his heart's left chamber.
"As a result, the child's heart was not functioning properly and the pumped blood was unable to reach the his lungs resulting in high risk to his life," Rajesh Sharma, Director (Paediatric Cardiac Surgery) at Jaypee Hospital said in a statement on Friday.
Uhl's anomaly is caused mainly due to two reasons — if the parents are closely related or environmental factors, the doctor said.
Bilal was treated with fontan procedure and right ventricle exclusion from circulation method — a critical surgerical procedure that took about five hours.
"Under this procedure, the entire blue blood of the child's body was pumped directly into his lungs through a tube and the right chamber of the heart is removed," Sharma said.
Due to prolonged illness, the child had become very weak, hence, he was kept on ventilator for four days post surgery. Along with this, he was given medicines so that his body gains immunity and does not develop any infections.
Bilal was also given a high calorie, high protein and vitamin diet through feeding tube to ensure speedy recovery. He was discharged last week, the doctor said.
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