Media Release

Mangaluru, Sep 24: A year and six-month-old girl child with severe congenital heart disease has undergone Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC) repair at Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute, Mangaluru. The treatment was successfully performed in the last week of July 2020.

The child arrived at the hospital with issues of severe breathlessness and failure to gain weight. At the time of admission, the child was barely weighing 5 kg, which is comparable to the weight of a two-month baby. She was diagnosed with Supra Cardiac type of TAPVC, a rare condition in which blood vessels that drain the lungs (pulmonary veins) are connected abnormally to the heart. This disease causes oxygen-poor blood being distributed all over the body, causing severe breathlessness, bluish discolouration of the body and severe failure to thrive.

She was deferred surgery considering her severe failure to thrive and due to her delayed presentation at various places. She was referred to Indiana Hospital and Heart institute for corrective treatment.

Following the family’s consent, TAPVC repair was performed last week. In this procedure, the abnormal venous connection was repaired in an open chest procedure. According to hospital authorities, it is one among the rare open cardiac surgeries done in children in Dakshina Kannada and neighbouring districts.

The procedure took about three hours to complete and the child got discharged after a week with great relief in her symptoms. Dr Yusuf Kumble, managing director and chief interventional cardiologist, Dr Ali Kumble chairman and HOD, paediatrics, Dr Abhishek neonatologist, Dr Siddharth V T cardiac surgeon, Dr Madhan cardiac anaesthetist and Dr Arun Varghese paediatric intensivist, were part of the procedure.

The family was of very poor financial background and did not even possess BPL card. Hence the managing director of Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute, Dr Yusuf Kumble issued a cheque of Rs. 1.5 lac for surgery from Indiana Fathima Health Foundation, a Trust set up to help the poor and needy people. This helped in meeting the cost of treating the child and providing financial relief to the helpless family.