Coimbatore: A city hospital has performed a complex open-heart surgery on a three-month-old baby boy from Thanjavur immediately after he recovered from Covid-19. According to doctors, the child, who was discharged from hospital last week, is recovering well.
A source with the G Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital said the baby boy, Nishanth, was born on July 2 at the government hospital in Thanjavur. Hardly three days later, the baby, which weighed 2.5kg, developed breathing difficulty and stopped feeding properly.
An echocardiogram showed a major congenital heart defect. The two main blood vessels in the body – the aorta and pulmonary artery - were originating from the wrong chambers of his heart, the source said. There was also a hole in between the lower chambers of his heart. It is diagnosed as transposition of great arteries with a ventricular septal defect.
Since the breathlessness kept recurring, the baby boy was referred to the G Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital in the city for an open-heart surgery. When they reached the district in September-end, the mandatory Covid-19 test before the surgery found the baby boy positive for the virus. He was then quarantined for two weeks and readmitted on October 11, after testing negative.
The surgery, which lasted six hours, was performed on October 13. He was weaned off the ventilator the next day and discharged three days later. The surgery was funded by the Genesis Foundation, which has a corporate social responsibility partnership with HDFC Ergo. The private concern contributed Rs 1.75 lakh for the surgery, as the boy’s father, a farmer, could raise only Rs 80,000.