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A rare surgery saves girl's life

Staff Reporter

Doctors close a hole in Sita's heart and perform a by-pass operation

NEW DELHI: When a thin and frail-looking 11-year-old Sita Verma walked into the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute on Panchkuian Road, doctors were not expecting to make history.

The constant fatigue that little Sita had been complaining about for over two years now turned out to be more than what her class teacher had described as Sita's "attention-seeking behaviour".

Doctors at the Institute pressed the alarm bells when they realised that Sita had 99 per cent narrowing of the left main coronary artery, which was causing recurrent chest pain. Further investigations revealed a finger-like bulge growing at the base of the aorta, pressing on the left main coronary artery resulting in obstruction of blood flow to the heart. This, according to the doctors, is a life-threatening condition often resulting in sudden cardiac death.

"The girl was sitting on a live bomb and her condition was very unusual for a child. There are very few reports in the world of medical literature that matched that of Sita. In her condition, Sita was managing to survive because there were small blood vessels connecting the right coronary and left coronary arteries that were actually sustaining life, but would have become inadequate in the long run. Also, it was obvious to us that because of the longstanding condition a corrective surgery was essential," said Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the Institute K.K. Sethi.

Sita's father works for Northern Railway and is stationed in Bareilly. She is the second child of the family and had been referred to Delhi's Railway Hospital for treatment.

"For long we brushed aside her complaints of chest pain. Sita persisted and maintained that the pain was real. She could not play and would get exhausted with any little exertion. It was only when we came to the Railway Hospital in Delhi that she was correctly diagnosed. In fact, they told us that my child could have a heart attack any time. Immediately Sita was rushed by ambulance to the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute where her treatment started," said Sita's father Ram Sahai.

Doctors explain that they closed the hole in Sita's heart by using a synthetic patch and performed a by-pass operation using the internal mammary artery of the patient and making another channel for facilitating blood flow to the heart.

"She has had a smooth recovery after surgery, conducted on April 26. Now she is well and about to be discharged,'' says the Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Institute, Dr. Ganesh K. Mani.

Still weak, Sita speaks in a feeble voice about her desire to learn "Kathak" once she gets back home and adds that she does not now feel the constant pain she experienced in the past.

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