Pakistani infant gets new lease of life in India post heart surgery

New Delhi: A 14-month-old infant from Pakistan came to the national capital with family with the hope of getting a new life after the treatment of a rare heart disorder and the baby did get a new lease of life as infant was successfully operated upon in a city hospital.

Earlier this week, the baby, who was diagnosed with a condition of a giant heart, received a new lease of life after undergoing an operation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, doctors at the hospital said.

The child was having recurrent chest infections and every crawling movement was interrupted due to breathlessness.

''The patient's blood receiving chamber on the left side of the heart (left atrium) was hugely dilated and was four times larger than the expected size (called Giant Left Atrium or GLA), which was pressing on the nearby airway structures in the chest,'' they added.

Giant Left Atrium (GLA) is a rare condition in paediatric population but carries a significant mortality risk. When left atrium increases in size, it causes complications by compressing adjacent structures such as food pipe, spine, pulmonary vessels. These complications are resolved after surgery.

The child had a left atrium, the upper chamber of the heart which receives oxygenated blood from the lungs, with a volume of 87 ml. The normal value for children of baby age is 12 to 20 ml.

This is reportedly the largest left atrium in the age group operated upon and the case has been accepted for publication in the journal 'The Annals of Thoracic Surgery'.The growth of infant was also impacted and the baby was just 6.5 kg at the time of admission. The normal weight for a child of 14 months is around 10.1 kgs.

Dr Neeraj Agrawal, Peadeatric Cardiologist said,"After heart's examination we found out that the heart was enlarged, especially the left atrium. The child also had a hole in the heart(called ventricular septal defect), with a leak in one of the valves.''

According to the hospital authorities, the volume of left atrium (LA) was 87 ml, while normal volume is 12-20 ml in children.They claimed it was the largest LA reported with respect to that age.

After the successful operation, the doctors said that parents of such patients should be told that treatment of some rarest disease is possible and that to successful treatment is possible.(UNI)