Vijayawada docs give new lease of life to Nigerian baby

The parents of six-and-a-half-month-old Udenka Kamsiyochukwu Divine of Onitsha in Nigeria were a bundle of nerves when the doctors told them that the baby had ‘transposition of great vessels’ (TGV), a relatively rare congenital heart condition.

Udenka had his two major vessels in the heart — the aorta and the pulmonary artery—transposed and the doctors said only a ‘switch’ procedure could be the cure, adding that the procedure, however, was a highly delicate one for infants less than a year old.

However, Udenka has got a new lease of life as paediatric cardio- thoracic surgeons N. Srinath Reddy and R. Benedict Raj of Ramesh Cardiac and Multispecialty Hospital in Vijayawada performed the procedure on Udenka on March 27. Fine now, the boy is going to be discharged on Tuesday.

The parents of Udenka are residents of Onitsha, nearly 500 km away from the Nigerian capital Abuja which is a journey of seven hours by road and one hour by flight.

“We took Udenka to a doctor after he complained of difficulty in breathing. The cardiologist suggested that the boy needed to be taken to India for a surgery. A medical tourism company contacted Ramesh Cardiac and Multispeciality Hospital in Vijayawada,” says Udenka Gloria, mother of the boy.

Visa issued in a week

However, the Indian Embassy in Abuja told the couple that it would take a month to process the visa. “But, the officials considered our pleas and the visa was issued to within a week. We will always be grateful to the Embassy,” says Ms. Gloria, who runs an educational institution. Her husband works as a barrister in Onitsha.

P Ramesh Babu, chief cardiologist and managing director of Ramesh Group of Hospitals says that as many as 17 ‘switch’ procedures have been successfully performed at the hospital so far, apart from more than 1,300 paediatric cardiac procedures in the last three years.

A heart procedure was performed on a seven-year-old Nigerian boy last month and a Libyan child will undergo surgery shortly. Such procedures will give health tourism a boost, he said.

“Health travel agents help parents select good hospitals in case of congenital heart problems. They take care of the logistical issues associated with the travel,” says Dr. Benedict Raj.

Cost matters

Cost is a big differentiator. For instance, a surgery like Udenka’s would cost Rs. 4 lakh in India while the same would cost 10 times in Europe, excluding the travel and other expenses, he adds.

“Air connectivity is crucial for health tourism. For instance, Udenka had to fly for more than 20 hours from Abuja to undergo the surgery in Vijayawada,” Dr Ramesh Babu adds.