Nine days old, Hassanah Fathimah was diagnosed with a serious heart condition that required immediate medical intervention.
Nine days old, Hassanah Fathimah weighed only 1.8 kgs and her whole appearance was a scary blue. The baby girl was diagnosed with a serious heart condition that required immediate medical intervention for survival. Hassanah’s heart was on the right side. In addition, she had a large hole in the heart called Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) and the artery to the lungs was blocked (known as pulmonary atresia in medical lingo).
Hailing from Mauratius, Hassanah was the second such child to be born in her family. “Hassanah is a special child for us. After having lost my 27 day old second baby a few years ago, diagnosed with a similar condition as Fathimah, I did not want to take any chance. With the case of Hassanah, we were well informed by the Ministry of Mauritius who guided us to Manipal Hospital in Bangalore,” said Reza Imteaz Mukoon, the baby’s father.
An echocardiogram done at the Manipal Hospital revealed further complications. “Generally, there is a small amount of fluid around the heart that allows it to pump smoothly. But in this case, the fluid quantity due to viral infection was so high that it in turn was compressing the heart. If she was not operated upon immediately, she wouldn’t have survived,” said Dr Ravi Narayan, consultant, pediatric cardiologist, Manipal Hospitals. She was immediately taken to the cath lab and the fluid was drained out. Though she recovered fast, she continued to remain blue.
She was kept in the NICU for 10 days after which her weight increased to 2.5 kg. She was then taken to the cath lab and a metal tube called stent was placed in the Patent Ductus Arteriosis (PDA) to keep it open and thus allow enough oxygen to enter the blood stream.
Another similar case that came almost simultaneously to the hospital was that of one month old Nerveesh, again from Mauritius. His heart had only three chambers instead of four and in addition the artery going to the lungs was blocked. He could survive as PDA was open to carry some blood to the lungs.
In a similar procedure, a 4 mm stent was inserted into the PDA thereby keeping the channel open. Immediately there was a gush of blood into the lungs and the baby became pink. Next day he was removed from the ventilator. After a few days in NICU, he was shifted to the ward and is now being released from the hospital.
In both the cases, stenting has been done on a temporary basis for a year, after which they will have to come back for an open heart surgery. Till then the babies can live a normal life, but will have to be under regular dosage of aspirin so as to avoid blood clot, said the doctor.
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