Baby Ahmed (name changed), a 5-month-old baby who had travelled all the way from Sudan to Columbia Asia Hospital Whitefield in Bengaluru, arrived with complaints of severe breathlessness and low oxygen levels. Hospitalisation and further diagnosis led to the doctors realising that it was a rare condition.
Ahmed was suffering from a congenital heart disease, a condition called Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) with Pulmonary Atresia, where the main tube that carries blood to lungs was not developed.
“Our main challenge was to convince the parents that the child needs an immediate surgery. The child needed a first stage (emergency) surgery, as he was very young for a complete operation to correct his heart defect. The very first surgery was conducted then where the doctor provided the lung with a small tube procedure, a surgical procedure generally used to increase pulmonary blood flow for palliation in duct dependent cyanotic heart defects like pulmonary atresias, which are common causes of blue baby syndrome,” said Dr Benedict Raj, Cardiac surgeon, Columbia Asia Hospital, Whitefield.
After this surgery was conducted, the ‘Blue Baby’ became ‘pink’ for the very first time since birth, that night, the child received enough oxygen, added Dr Raj.
After six months, a second surgery was conducted on the child. In this surgery a new tube and an artificial valve was created using the child’s own tissue and this was placed between the heart and the lungs, which is similar to normal anatomy. This artificial valve does not require any medications and at the end of the surgery the child’s oxygen levels in the body was 100%.