Media Release
Udupi, Jan 23: Dr Avinash Shetty, medical superintendent speaking at a press meet, here on Thursday January 23 said, “Earlier we had no facilities here to do cardiac surgeries. So, most of the people used to go to Mumbai, Cochin for their children's treatment. Today, with a lot of good team efforts from the department of Pediatrics, department of OBG and Fetal Medicine, department of Neonatology, department of Radiology, department of Cardiac Anesthesiology in addition to cardiology and cardiac surgery. Kasturba Hospital runs a full spectrum of Pediatric heart care, starting from Antenatal Diagnosis and counselling, Cath lab procedure or Cardiac surgeries and excellent post-operative ICU care. So far, as many as 129 cardiac surgeries have been done on infants.
"We have provided free treatment for 70% of the children under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, around 90 children got free of cost treatment. This central scheme is not available at all hospitals in the state. Poor families have been benefited by this. We will provide the same kind of service in future. We will not wait for the Ayushman Scheme during emergency.
Dr Aravind Kumar Bishnoi, Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, Manipal said, “The hospital started Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in 2018 and performed 100 cardiac surgeries on children successfully. Earlier, pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery was not available in coastal Karnataka and sick newborns and children had to go either to Cochin or Bengaluru for urgent treatment. Many of these children are not even fit to travel because of critical illness and distance.
“Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, Manipal took the initiative to provide these services in Manipal and became the first Center in coastal Karnataka, from Kasaragod to Goa to provide these services. The programme started with two pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiac surgeons in 2018. In December 2019, 100 surgeries were completed. It was a difficult task to convince Pediatricians and parents that surgeries can be done in Manipal. It was well imprinted in everybody's mind that heart disease of children means going to a metro city and facilities are not available at a nearby hospital. Our initial few patients were newborns on a ventilator not in a position to shift and got operated here. But now all types of surgeries even the most complex ones were done in the last two years. Slowly, by word of mouth publicity, patients started coming. Still, a majority of our patients (45%) were there for more than a month. The cost of the surgery depends on types and severity of the problem."
“Still, people need to be more aware of the availability of services at their doorstep, so that no critical patient has to risk life by unnecessary travel to a bigger center. People from Karnataka, Kerala and Goa could get treated. He said there are some technical issues in the Ayushman Bharat. If the process in the scheme is simplified, needy people may not get the benefit at the right time. The government should address this problem in the scheme by bringing relaxation in norms,” said Dr Leslie Edward S Lewis, Professor and Head, Department of Neonatology.
Dr Akkatai S Teli, consultant, Pediatric Cardiology said, "Cardiac-related problems can be seen in 6-8% of live births out of a total of 1000 births. When comparing to the total mortality of infants, the rate is 30%. Around 10% of the total mortality of children below one year happens because of heart disease. If cardiac problem is found before 20 weeks of pregnancy, it can be terminated and it is considered legal termination, otherwise, one should wait till the delivery of the baby.