Delhi doctors treat Kenya baby with rare heart flaw

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) Doctors have given a six-month-old Kenyan baby, suffering from a rare congenital heart defect, a new lease of life.

Emmanuel Lila Kamank was diagnosed with this heart defect known as Taussig-Bing anomaly just four days after his birth.

Taussig-Bing anomaly is a malformation of the heart in which there is transposition of aorta to the right ventricle, which in normal case should originate from left ventricle.

Kamank was admitted at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in a cyanotic condition in which the skin develops a bluish discolouration due to lack of oxygen in blood. He was put on ventilator as he suffered a sudden respiratory arrest, which caused a cardiac attack.

Kamank's pulmonary artery was also wrongly positioned into the right ventricle. He also had a block in the aorta, as well as a defect caused by an open foetal blood vessel that should get closed soon after birth, Muthu Joshi, Senior Consultant, Paediatric Cardiothoracic surgeon, said in a statement on Thursday.

"It was a high risk case with limited chances of success even with surgery. We devised a treatment plan for the baby and informed his family about the 50-60 per cent surgical risk associated with it. As the family consented, we decided to go ahead with the procedure," Joshi said.

Kamank underwent a nine-hour surgery and was discharged after a week on the ventilator, he said.

The child has returned to Kenya with his family and is doing well, the doctors said.

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