The Healers Journal: My Calling to Treat Children with Congenital Heart Defects

Let me start where it all began. My passion for children with heart disease was borne more out of desperation rather than choice. During my pediatric residency at a government medical college in Kolkata, like most, I was constantly exposed to the plight of children with congenital heart disease. Unfortunately, most of these children were deemed to have no hope or future and were literally left to fight their own battles. Apart from being the primary catalyst to embrace this specialty such stories and memories have served as a constant motivation as I have moved along into my career.

There could not be a more complex problem in medical science than dealing with children with congenital heart disease (CHD). In a country like ours, CHD care is highly resource intensive and requires significant logistical and infrastructural support. Even the learning curve for the medical and allied caregivers in the specialty is steeper than most. Hence comes the catch-22 scenario where on one hand there is suboptimal public healthcare system for CHD care. On the other hand, the private and corporate sector tread very carefully with the specialty. Unlike the ‘highly profitable’ adult cardiac sciences, pediatric cardiology even with its unique flavors, draws skepticism rather than enthusiasm from a large majority of private players. However, there are some impacts which cannot be measured just by numbers and revenues. An infant with corrective heart surgery is likely to have 70 years of healthy and functional life for himself and society. Such long-term vision is often lacking in the Indian healthcare sector.

Philanthropy forms the backbone of CHD care. For us caregivers, the most important chief complaint of the parents of a CHD baby is ‘lack of funds’. I have been privileged to work with some of the leading global organizations supporting children with congenital heart disease. Organizations like ‘Samaritans Purse’, ‘Have a heart’ were the main support during my 3 years stay at Health City Hospital, Cayman Islands; the only international JCI accredited hospital in the region. With their support I was lucky to take care of children coming from across the globe (Iraq, Mongolia, Bolivia, Caribbean countries, African countries etc.) The greatest understanding from this experience was that irrespective of religion, race, ethnicity, cast, creed, CHD children spoke a universal language of suffering and needed compassionate and supportive care.

While Cayman gave me some fresh perspective, bulk of my work experience in treating children with CHD has been nurtured in different hospitals in India. I have been fortunate to work with a wonderful team of expert cardiologists and surgeons at Narayana hospitals, Howrah. Amongst others, in Genesis Foundation, a children’s healthcare foundation, we got one of our strongest allies in dealing with the nemesis of CHD. Their support as a foundation working for children has been constant and unwavering and has allowed us to reach new heights of CHD care in Eastern India both from surgical and interventional perspectives. Now that we have moved to Neotia Bhagirathi Hospital, Newtown as a team, we want to further strengthen our partnership and continue the good work for the marginalized patients. It’s true, South India and Delhi were the torchbearers of CHD care for a long time. However, the rest of the country has caught up, particularly the east, both in volume more importantly in quality. More than 50 national and international publications from this region over the past 1 year, stands testament to this fact.

I consider working with CHD children as my tryst with destiny. The joy, the happiness, the excitement of a child and their parents after a successful heart procedure is ‘priceless’. Mastercard can remain for everything else.

Dr Aritra Mukherji
MBBS. MD. FNB. FPICS
Pediatric Interventional Cardiologist & Fetal Cardiologist
Adult Congenital and structural interventionist
Neotia Bhagirathi Women and Child Care Center, Newtown, Kolkata