Bravehearts of the Foundation: Baby of Manjusha
April 18, 2018 | Contributed by R Srivatsan
Manjusha’s baby is now a little over a month old, and in this brief span of time he has already had a taste of just how difficult life can be. But hopefully he has also learnt, that sometimes – trying times occur just so we can appreciate the strength of a miracle.
Born into a tribal community, in a village in Kannur, Kerala, the baby was taken home in stable state from the district hospital in Thalassery. When he was twelve days old, his mother noticed that her baby was experiencing breathlessness, and thus took him to the Calicut Medical College. At the medical college, he was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) and stayed in the ICU till he was transferred to Amrita Institute in Kochi, in an ambulance.
On arrival, the baby was taken to the ICU immediately. A detailed echo was carried out and the diagnosis arrived at was; Transposition of Great Arteries. (TGA) with an intact ventricular septum.
The child underwent an emergency BAS (Balloon Atrial Septostomy) procedure in view of poor mixing. The detailed echo evaluation raised suspicions that he had large collaterals supplying to the pulmonary arteries.
The baby then underwent a cardiac CT which revealed a very large collateral arising from the base of subclavian artery supplying both lungs with no native pulmonary artery connection. In addition, there was another large collateral arising from descending thoracic aorta supplying to the right lung.
The child underwent a coli closure of both collaterals and was taken up immediately for surgery m as well as an uneventful Arterial Switch Operation. The baby was extubated two days after the surgery and was tapered off supports and made a good recovery.
It is very rare to have large collaterals supplying the pulmonary blood in Transposition of Great Arteries. If not detected and tackled pre-operatively it could have resulted in a catastrophic pulmonary haemorrhage post-operatively. Many a times these collaterals are not detect pre-operatively and are usually found out after surgery due to massive intra tracheal bleed.
The baby’s father, Bipin is a daily wage labourer who earns around Rs 4000 per month and was terrified at the sum he would have to amass to pay for his son’s surgery.
Our intervention, financially supported by WPP India CSR Foundation, which was a blessing to the entire family, who were left ecstatic that their baby would be able to have the surgery that he needed
