Complicated paediatric heart surgery pulled off
PHOTO: FILE
Maroof International Hospital has successfully conducted its first paediatric cardiothoracic surgery on a six-month-old child.
The child had a hole in the septum that separates the lower two chambers of the heart, also known as ventricular septal defect, Maroof Hospital spokesperson Rubina Afzal said while talking to media on Friday.
This defect allowed oxygen-rich blood to leak into the oxygen-poor blood chambers of the patient's heart. A small hole may close on its own, but this little child's hole required a surgery.
The operation was conducted by Dr Mahim Akmal Malik, Diplomate American Boards of General Surgery, Thoracic Surgery and Congenital Cardiac Surgery. The child was discharged after 72 hours' speedy recovery, she added.
Rubina said that since June 2022, Maroof Hospital has started performing open-heart surgery, valve repair and procedures of infants, children, and adolescents.
A team of foreign qualified Paediatric Cardiologists and Cardiothoracic Surgeons was supported by physicians, intensivists, nurses, and anaesthesiologists, led by Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon Dr Mahim and Pediatric Intensivist Dr Muhammad Tariq Jamil, she added.
Sharing details, Dr Mahim said that congenital heart defects are quite different from the types of heart diseases that are common among adults, as repairing hearts in small bodies present an added challenge.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2022.