Medical Milestone: Two-year-old gets a heart bypass

LAHORE: For the first time in Pakistan’s medical history, a team of cardiac surgeons from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology conducted a successful by-pass operation on a two-and-a-half years old boy. Prof Abdul Waheed, head of the team of surgeons, on Monday said a hospital in Sialkot had referred Muhammad Tabeeb, who was suffering from a rare congenital defect of the left main coronary artery of his heart, to the PIC. Dr Waheed said that Tabeeb had 20 per cent heart function only. A corrective procedure was not possible due to the complex nature of the disease. However, the operation was carried out successfully. A blood vessel (internal mammary artery) was harvested from his chest and grafted onto the left coronary artery, Dr Waheed explained. The team of surgeons comprised Dr Tipu Khan and Dr Tabeeda Ejaz and Dr Waheed. The child was recovering fast. Considering his age and the complexity of the disease, Waheed said, he considered the operation a great achievement for the PIC Department of Cardiac Surgery.  The operation was carried out free of cost, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2013.