SRCC Children's Hospital managed by Narayana Health has performed one of the rarest of heart surgeries in the world on a 45 day old baby boy who hails from Sangli, District, in Maharashtra.

For our comprehensive coverage and latest updates on COVID-19 click here.

The surgery was performed successfully at a time when the prevention and treatment services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have been severely disrupted since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The most critical aspect of this surgery was that the baby suffering from diagnosis of d-transposition of great arteries with regressed LV, the operation in an ideal situation should have been done within first 2 weeks since birth, otherwise one of the main pumping chamber of the heart starts failing. Since the kid was already one and a half month old, the team of specialist doctors at SRCC Children's Hospital had to immediately consider surgery and operate on the child, knowing the seriousness of child's condition.

"Initially, when baby was first diagnosed with transposition of great arteries - where the two main arteries come out from a different heart chamber are reversed and the body doesn't get oxygenated blood. But there was a further shock: a scan revealed another severe heart condition - infracardiac Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC)," said Dr Pradeep Kaushik, Senior Consultant, Cardiac Surgery - Paediatric, SRCC Children's Hospital managed by Narayana Health.

"Here, the vessels carrying purified blood from the lungs drain through the liver. So as a whole, firstly body was getting only impure ( deoxygenated) blood repeatedly, secondly whatever purified (oxygenated) blood was coming through lungs was not connected to heart and draining via liver. Hence baby was very blue on arrival to our center," said Dr Kaushik. "The procedure performed is first in India and only one more reported case from in the world with a combination of these two conditions who survived similar procedure post-surgery," Dr. Kaushik, further added.

Doctors from Sangli Hospital, Dr Sachin Salunkhe, General Surgeon, took extra effort in this lockdown to send the child as early as possible to Mumbai for further treatment. "When the kid arrived at the hospital, the oxygen level of the baby was only at 40 percent which in normal condition required is 100 percent. And sending them to Mumbai was a challenge due to the lockdown. The 108 ambulance service stepped in. Also, after negative COVID-19 tests, the parents and infant left for Mumbai for treatment at SRCC Children's Hospital," said Dr Laxmikant Magdum, Medical officer in Sangli.

The surgery lasted for 8 hours in which they corrected both the complex condition of the heart. The main blood vessels were re-implanted on to the correct chamber (Arterial Switch Procedure) and blood vessels carrying pure blood were reconnected to the heart (TAPVC Repair). Gradually the kid recovered and was discharged in good condition, two weeks after the successful procedure.