Doctors perform rare surgery on 14-month-old child

On the occasion of Eid, Md Rushid managed to give the perfect gift to his 14-month-old son Zubair who was suffering from Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) since he was in the womb.
Doctors at a city hospital operated upon him today offering him a fresh lease of life.
Md Rushid, who lives in a mosque in Saharanpur on daily rent of Rs 100, had reached Delhi a month back to get his son treated.
After running from pillar to post, the family arrived at BLK Super Speciality Hospital.
"Zubair's condition resulted in flooding of lungs which put high pressure on his lungs. Additionally it resulted in recurrence of pneumonia and he did not gain weight, remaining only 7 kg. Ideally he should have 11 kg of weight under normal conditions," said Dr Vikas Kohli, Director and HOD at BLK Children's Heart Institute.

PDA is present in all of us when we are in the mother's womb. It's a bypass for the lungs since they are non functional in utero. This bypass track is supposed to close within first few days after birth. But in Zubair's case it has not closed, Dr Kohli informed.

The opening allowed oxygen-rich blood from the aorta to mix with oxygen-poor blood from the pulmonary artery. This strained his heart and increased blood pressure in the lung arteries.
"The challenge was to close the opening without surgery considering his age and weight. The procedure was carried out with general anesthesia so that the patient can get up immediately after the procedure and take a feed early after the procedure.

"It was done through the groin vein. The process is similar to an angioplasty. From the groin the wire was passed into the heart and the PDA was crossed. Over this a catheter (a plastic tube like the ball pen refill but much longer) was passed over the wire to close the opening," said Kohli.
The condition can affect full-term infants, it's more common in premature infants. On average, PDA occurs in about 8 out of every 1,000 premature babies, compared with 2 out of every 1,000 full-term babies.