Infant with rare defect survives heart surgery
The case of Zayan Sheikh — the baby who survived a fatal defect where the blood from his heart was being distributed in his body without being purified in the lungs — does not cease to amaze doctors. The five-week-old boy underwent the complicated arterial switch operation and stabilised out of it within 24 hours.
Explaining the rare case, Dr Suresh Joshi, senior paediatrician and surgeon, Wockhardt Hospital, said, “In Sheikh’s case, the blue impure blood coming from the heart was being distributed in the body without getting purified in the lungs. The child had no mixing of blood as he had a very small Patent Foramen Ovale, which is responsible for transportation of blood.”
According to doctors, Sheikh was born blue and was suffering from significant respiratory distress and breathlessness. According to the National Centre of Biotechnology Information, the mortality rate in such a disorder is less than five per cent in the state.
“The survival rate is low in Maharashtra due to non-availability of specialised unit for paediatric care. The other associated reasons are non-availability of experts in the area due to which many a time, doctors lacking in expertise operate the baby,” said Dr Joshi. He added that Sheikh’s case was special for the hospital as he was born with the added complication of a hole in his heart.
About the operation, Dr Joshi said, “In this surgery, the artery on the right side of the heart is detached and implanted on the left side, where it is supposed to be and the pulmonary artery is transferred to the right side from its abnormal left-sided origin.” He said the complexity of the surgery lay in transferring very tiny coronary arteries that are about 1-2 mm in size.
The baby was taken off the ventilator in less than 24 hours and discharged from the hospital within a week; extraordinary considering a child generally takes 20 to 25 days for complete recovery.
