3-yr-old with rare heart malformation successfully operated on

A three-year-old girl suffering from a rare malformation of the heart from birth has been successfully operated on in centrally-administered JIPMER.
Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery B V Sai Chandran, who headed the team of doctors which performed the surgery, told PTI that the child had been suffering from ALCAPA (Anomalous origin of Left Coronary Artery from Pulmonary Artery). She underwent the operation last week and is now recuperating very well, he said.
Chandran said that such rare birth malformation of the heart occurs in one out of three lakh children.
In cases of ALCAPA, the left coronary artery originates from pulmonary artery instead of from the aorta and hence this artery carries impure blood, lacking oxygen.

"This causes severe damage to the left wall of the heart chamber and will weaken it. This in turn will cause severe deformity and leakage of the left heart valve (mitral valve)," Chandran said.
Chandran said this was similar to a condition of massive heart attack along with severe heart valve rupture occurring in adults.
The girl belongs to very poor family in Kurur village in Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu. Her father is an autorickshaw driver.
Director of JIPMER S C Parija said in a release that the parents had brought the baby with complaints of breathlessness and poor feeding. The surgery would have cost Rs three lakh if done at a private hospital, while it had been done here free of cost, he said.