Tribal teen with thick heart muscles undergoes rare surgeries

-
The following article is published in the New Indian Express, Chennai Edition.

http://newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Tribal-teen-with-thick-heart-muscles-undergoes-rare-surgeries/2013/10/17/article1838964.ece

Chandran (14) would sit down every time he had breathlessness since his birth. Hailing from a tribal family from Parithipuram, Villupuram district, Chandran came to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital as he was suffering from congenital squatting cyanotic spell, a common cause for Blue Baby Syndrome with breathing, vomiting, headache and giddiness.
Through a series of tests like ECG, CT Scan and Cath study, Chandran was diagnosed with multiple rare complications including a double outlet right ventricle with ventricular septal defect and pulmonary cinohessis.
In simple terms, the boy had both the pulmonary artery and aorta connected to the right ventricle of the heart, when they should be connected to the left ventricle. This condition, called hypertrophy, left the heart muscles thick.
This condition caused mix up of both pure and impure blood, causing other complications, said Dr V Kanagasabai, Dean, MMC and RGGGH.  A team of doctors, led by the cardiothoracic department’s Dr Ganesan, performed a complex surgery on the boy on October 5 for over five hours. They split the superior vena cava vein and connected it to the lungs directly to reduce pressure on the heart. The vein, which connects the upper body to the heart, is supposed to be connected to the lungs, through the heart.
Doctors said the two complex and rare operations saved the boy from brain abcess, stroke and pulmonary oligemia apart from breathlessness, bluing of the body and reduced blood circulation to the brain that he was earlier suffering.
“He would often have headaches and breathing problems, and would not eat properly. Today my son is able lead a normal life,” said Shanthi, Chandran’s mother.
Doctors said that the congenital heart disease the boy was suffering since birth was mainly due to marriage among blood relations. He had been suffering from various other symptoms of the disease since his birth including improper opening of the anus and a drumstick-like appearance of the fingertips The complication itself was rare with one in 10 lakh people suffering from it, doctors added.
“We took him to a hospital in Puducherry but they gave medicines and said he will be alright. But he continued to suffer. So we brought him here,” Shanthi said as Chandran added that he was feeling much better.
Dr Kanagasabai said that surgery and the 40-day hospital stay would have cost `10 lakh, but the boy underwent the surgery for free under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IIT-Madras launches country’s first standing wheelchair

-
Union Minister Gehlot lauded IIT-Madras for its initiative, and also recalled the Narendra Modi government's various welfare measures for the 'divyang' Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Madras) has launched the country’s first indigenously designed standing wheelchair . The project, in collaboration with Phoenix Medical Systems, enables a differently-abled person requiring a wheelchair to shift from sitting to standing position, and vice versa, independently and in a controlled manner. The wheelchair ‘Arise’ was launched in the presence of Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot at the institute. Union Minister Gehlot lauded IIT-Madras for its initiative, and also recalled the Narendra Modi government’s various welfare measures for the ‘divyang’, including setting up five national-level sophisticated sports centres for differently-abled sportspersons in different parts of the country. According to Sashi Kumar, Managing Direct...
Read more

Complex pain relief surgery performed at private hospital

-
Source: The Hindu, Chennai edition, June 2022 The patient was suffering from a brachial plexus injury Doctors at Kauvery Hospital here have performed a complex spinal surgery to relive the excruciating pain in the limbs of a 24-year-old man suffering from brachial plexus injury. A release from the hospital said the youngster met with a road accident three years ago, which resulted in an injury to the brachial plexus, a network of nerves responsible for carrying signals from the spinal cord to the shoulders and arms. G. Balamurali , consultant spine and neurosurgeon at the hospital, said when a person suffered damages to the brachial plexus, it would cause extreme pain and weakness of the limbs. “The pain experienced is so severe that some patients want their limbs removed,” he said. Surgical procedures such as nerve transfer, muscle transfer or tendon transfer and management of pain with medications were often not very effective, he said. The doctors at Kauvery Hospital, ther...
Read more

55-year-old man undergoes aortic valve replacement

-
Source: The Hindu , Chennai edition,  FRIDAY JULY 22, 2022   A 55-year-old man, who had underdeveloped limbs and was born with a single kidney, underwent an aortic valve replacement surgery at MadrasMedical Mission (MMM) . Doctors decided against Transcatheter Aortic ValveImplantation (TAVI) considering the risks involved due to his multiple co-morbidities and opted for surgical replacement with a tissue valve. The patient has deformities in his left upper and lower limbs due to a condition called phocomelia , where the limbs are underdeveloped. This deformity was the side effect of the drug Thalidomide given for morning sickness during pregnancy in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born with a single kidney and has had episodes of pancreatitis for which stents were placed, a press release said. He was diagnosed with a shriveled aortic valve and was having breathlessness. “We saw him in April this year. He had severe aortic stenosis. Traditionally, an aortic valve replacement s...
Read more