Doctors perform complex heart surgery on 44-day old in Jaipur

A team of cardiac surgeons at a hospital here claimed to have successfully operated upon a 44-day-old baby boy, who was suffering from "blue baby syndrome" after 28 days of its birth.
The baby from Bhilwara became India's youngest patient to be revived after Primary Single Stage Correction surgery for "Tetralogy of Fellot" (TOF), a complex heart defect that causes blue baby syndrome, Dr Sunil Kaushal, Director and Chief Paediatric Cardiac surgeon of Fortis Escorts Hospital, said in a release here today.
It was a challenging feat as such a complex surgery was never performed on a newborn in India before, it added.

According to the surgeon, when the baby boy was born in the Rathore household of Bhilwara, the excitement did not last long.
Twenty eight days after his birth, the family noticed that the infant stopped taking feeds, started breathing rapidly, was irritable, developed weakness and fatigue and before they could take any step, the baby started turning blue due to low oxygen levels.
When the doctors tried to revive the baby with medication, the condition started worsening and it was soon diagnosed that the baby suffered from TOF.

The patient was immediately shifted to the hospital.
"By the time patient reached the hospital, the patient's condition worsened and a decision of treatment had to be made immediately.

The baby boy was operated on December 25 and discharged today, Dr Kaushal said.
It is a rare disorder with prevalence rate of 10-15 per cent of all congenital heart defects, he noted.