The doctors from the cardiology department successfully corrected one of his defective valve, a rare feat. About one in thousand children (0.1 per cent) have congenital heart disease by birth and a very few of these 0.1 per cent have defective valve. If not treated in time, the baby may die within a week in not less.

The Nagre couple, hailing from Sangamner town near Nashik in Maharashtra, had been referred to the Cama Hospital when the baby’s condition worsened after birth. The doctors at the Cama Hospital diagnosed the child with Pulmonary Valve Atresia, Ventriculous Septum and Right Heart Failure. Pulmonary Valve Atresia is a rare defect because of which the heart valve, which allows passage of the de-oxygenated (bad) blood to the lungs, is sealed. In the place of the pulmonary valve, the boy had a diaphragm with no apertures and thus right ventricle which was unsuccessfully trying to pump the blood was on the verge of failure. Doctors at the Cama Hospital realised that the baby required treatment from specialised doctors and so he was rushed to the JJ Hospital.

According to the doctor, the baby managed to survive thanks to a cross connection (ductus arteriosus) between both the parts of the heart which exists in neonatal stage and closes a few hours after a child is born. Miraculously, in this case the closure of this cross connection did not take place and so the baby managed to survive first three days of his life.

Dr Narendra Bansal, head of the cardiology department, said: “We treated the child with a life saving drug which maintains the cross connection (ductus arteriosus) and prevents it from closing.” The baby could have been treated by performing a surgery, however, difficulties in performing a surgery on such a small baby are immense, starting with lack of proper facilities to dearth of paediatric cardiologists in the country — there are about 10 cardiologists of which two are in Mumbai.

Keeping all this in mind, the doctors ruled out the surgery and instead performed the rare balloon angioplasty on the baby. It was conducted on The balloon angioplasty operation was conducted on December 12, 2007 by a team of doctors led by Dr Bansal and assisted by Dr Bhanu Kapoor, lecturer in cardiology.

“The child is now doing fine. The valve should perform normally. Even if the aperture shrinks in the future, this operation will enable him to sustain the initial few years till he grows to an age where a surgery is possible,” said Dr Bansal.