Had it not been for timely and correct treatment provided at the paediatric unit of Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, an infant who was 15 days old on Thursday would not have survived. The male baby weighing just 2.05 kg was born with a complete heart block at a government hospital in Shimoga. He was delivered through a C-section on May 2.
Soon after his birth, he experienced respiratory distress, would not feed adequately and cried incessantly. He was shifted to a private hospital in Shimoga on May 4. But finding the case too complicated, the hospital referred the baby to Jayadeva on May 7, said Dr I.B. Vijayalakshmi, professor of paediatric cardiology at Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research. The baby is now recovering in the paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) in a baby warmer in an incubator.
Explaining the procedure, Dr Vijayalakshmi said, “We had to conducted echo cardiogram, ECG and angiogram, which revealed that, apart from the total heart block the baby also had an unwanted channel in the heart. The baby was not responding to the medicine initially and the heart pumping had come down.
“We had to be very careful as it involved a lot of risk for the baby was too small. On the sixth day of his birth, we had conducted a device closure for Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) which is an open channel allowing blood to flow from the aorta to the pulmonary artery."”
Generally in a new born baby the normal heart beat should be a minimum of 100 per minute, but this baby's heart beat is not even 50 per minute. Once the heartbeat is stabilised a pace-maker will be inserted. “For the first three days the baby was just fed with IV fluids and now we are providing 5ml of milk from another baby's mother in the hospital every two hours," the doctor said. The baby is the first born child of Gangamma and Basappa, a vegetable vendor from Shikaripura. The mother is still recovering from the C-section she underwent at the government hospital in Shimoga.
“Cases like this one are very rare in Karnataka. Such cases can be prevented if expecting mothers undergo foetal echocardiography, which will tell if the baby’s heart is fine,” Dr Vijayalakshmi said.