Karnataka - Bangalore

Heart mended, baby safe in hospital

Special Correspondent

Three-month-old Kushboo and her parents can now fly back to Mauritius Kushboo and her parents can now fly back to Mauritius

BANGALORE: Her little heart mended and a healthy childhood ahead of her, three-month-old Kushboo from Mauritius sleeps peacefully in a section of the intensive therapy unit at Manipal Hospital and Heart Foundation on Friday. Her beaming mother, Parweena, her anxiety of a week ago gone, hovers around her. Kushboo's father Parwez, a business executive in Mauritius, is close at hand.

"She was a small baby at birth but we never thought anything was wrong till a paediatrician discovered a heart murmur and suspected a congenital defect in her heart,'' recalls Parwez. A few weeks later, Kushboo's fingertips and nails started turning blue, a typical case of a "blue baby", as doctors call it.

Grateful parents

"The Mauritius Government arranged for treatment here, and I can't find enough words to thank the doctors at Manipal Hospital. It's literally a second life for our daughter,'' the parents say.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Joseph Xavier explained Kushboo was diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot, a combination of four defects in the heart.

Blood vessel carrying impure blood from the heart to the lungs was not functioning normally. This led to thickening of one of the related chambers of the heart. The baby was not getting enough oxygen to breathe.

She weighs only 3 kg. In earlier days, surgeons would have hesitated to operate on such a small baby or would have gone in for a preliminary operation followed by another later.

"We decided to risk carrying out a major surgery at one go so that she does not need to enter hospital again when she is older,'' Dr. Xavier says. Cardiologist G.K.T. Iyer says one in 1,000 babies are born with congenital heart problems.

In some cases the symptoms may not be apparent till much later, and "the blue baby may actually look a pink baby,'' he remarks.

There may be a five to 10 per cent chance that the corrected heart vessel may become narrow again, but surgery later may be more risky.

The Mauritius Government paid for the hospital stay, and doctors say they volunteered their services, taking it as an opportunity to save a life.

It has been five days since the surgery, and Kushboo and her parents look forward to flying back to Mauritius by Monday.

Manipal Heart Foundation has treated 60 babies from Mauritius for congenital heart defects.

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