Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Thursday operated upon an infant born with a protruding heart and pushed the organ within the body after creating space for it. The 8-day-old boy is now said to be “stable and recovering”.
“We created a space for the heart by mobilising his lungs and liver. We are seeing to it that there is no obstruction to the flow of blood into and out of the heart,” A.K. Bisoi, cardiologist and additional professor at the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department of AIIMS who led the surgery team, told IANS.

“The child is stable and is now recovering. He is under observation… let’s see,” he added.

A team of five doctors, led by Bisoi started the surgery at 9.a.m. and it took them nearly four hours. Now, the doctors are keeping their fingers crossed for his survival.

The infant was brought to the institute last Friday by his father Chander Manjhi, a farmer, when he was just two days old. He was suffering from thoracic ectopia cordis, a “rarest of the rare heart defect” in which the heart is abnormally located. Occurring in five to nine cases in one million births, the mortality rate among the cases is very high.

Kept in the intensive cardiac care unit of the Cardio-Thoracic Sciences Centre, the infant went through his first exchange blood transfusion Sunday night as his blood was infected.

As the family is very poor, the institute is treating the child free of cost.

“These kind of children are either born dead or die within 36 hours. He has already created a record by surviving for so many days. It is a lifetime opportunity for professionals to learn how to deal with such kind of situation,” Bisoi said.