Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore successfully performed a risky open heart surgery on a 7-day old baby with a rare heart defect and has given the babe and its parent a great hope. A press conference was held on Tuesday at the hospital where the team of doctors who did the procedure and offered pre & post operative care to the baby addressed the reporters.

This baby was born in Trichy district in August 2024, and after just 7 days, it was diagnosed with Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC). This is a rare congenital heart defect occurring in 1 out of 100 kids. In this condition the purified/oxygenated blood from the lungs will go to right instead of going to the left side.

This leads to getting both oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to get mixed, and that will become lethal to the child. The baby which was first admitted to Trichy Government Hospital was put on ventilator and it was referred to Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore.

Since the baby needed immediate medical attention, the Trichy District Police and Coimbatore City Police facilitated a green corridor and an ambulance from Sri Ramakrishna Hospital equipped with mobile neonatal intensive care unit raced against time to cover 240 kilometers in just 2 hours 50 minutes and brought the baby to the hospital on 4.9.2024.

All the needed tests were carried and the surgery – TAPVC Repair procedure was done the next day. Dr.Vijay Sadasivam, Consultant Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Dr.Manfred Fernando, Junior Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon performed the surgery with support from anesthesiologists Dr.Narendran and Dr.Manikandan.

The surgery lasted for 3.5 to 4 hours and during the surgery the functioning of heart and lungs were stopped and those functions were taken over by a Cardio-Pulmonary Bypass machine (CPB). It was a very complicated procedure and the hospital, with its expert medical team successfully did it. The baby is doing well now.

The Pre and Post operative care were provided by Dr.Siddartha Buddhavarapu, Consultant Neonatologist, Dr Devaprasath, Consultant Interventional Pediatric Cardiologist and Dr.Suja Mariam, Consultant Neonatologist.

R.Sundar, Joint Managing Trustee of SNR Sons Charitable Trust which runs Sri Ramakrishna Hospital congratulated the surgeons, doctors & the entire medical team during the press conference.

The parents of the baby thanked the police personnel, the ambulance driver, the hospital’s medical team, press & media for their contribution in the success of this surgery. It must be mentioned that a portion of the medical expenses were borne by the Hospital’s management and a few benevolent donors to help the parent of the baby. The infant will be discharged tomorrow.