Doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi gave a newborn baby new lease of life by curing his rare heart defect. The baby had 'Transposition of Great Arteries', a type of congenital heart defect in which the heart’s large blood vessels responsible for carrying blood to the lungs and body are connected completely opposite to the normal heart structure. In addition to this, the baby also had two holes in his heart that caused poor weight gain.

The weight of the baby which was only 2.2 kg posed a huge risk, so the doctors waited for the child to grow and planned on performing an open heart surgery on the baby when the weight reached 2.8 kg – 3 kg.

Unfortunately, his weight and condition did not improve, and he was kept on the ventilator. Thus, the doctors performed the surgery. The operation took around 5 hours.

"We performed an arterial switch operation in which the aorta and coronary arteries are disconnected from their place and are adjusted in the right place. Along with arterial switch, closure of the heart holes were done," said Senior Consultant of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Dr Muthu Jothi, at Apollo Hospital.

Dr Jothi further added that "By God's grace, the child recuperated enough to go home after 10-12 days post the surgery, which is not usually the case. He is doing absolutely fine now and is gaining weight too.”

Dr Jothi also talked about the condition, "However, factors such as late childbirth, marriage with a close cousin or within the family, poor nutrition or infection during pregnancy, or antibiotic course in the initial three months, smoking or alcohol can increase the risk of such conditions.”

Source: https://goo.gl/tPiymX