Success Stories

Current Scenario

For every 1000 babies born, 8 have congenital heart disease. In India, every year there are around 2,00,000 babies born with heart defects referred to as congenital defects of the heart.
Of these, about 1,00,000 babies require surgery or intervention by the first year of life. The sad fact is that only 10% of these children get the necessary surgery/treatment.
The reasons for this are many. First and foremost is the lack of information regarding heart defects and the availability of treatment for the same.
Secondly, most parents of such babies belong to the lower socio-economic strata and cannot afford treatment .
Thirdly, there is a lack of adequate number of tertiary hospitals in India that provide treatment for such children. As of 2016 there are more that 10 states which do not have a single pediatric cardiac care centre.

Success Stories

Success Story 1

5 year old Naina (name changed) had difficulty playing with other children. She used to get tired and breathless on playing and running. Her parents also complained that she used to fall sick often and had recurrent cough and fever. She was also hospitalized on few occasions for the same. She was referred to our centre for cardiac evaluation since she was not getting better with medications. On evaluation she was found to have a hole(ASD) in the heart. This was responsible for her symptoms .It was decided to treat her with a non-surgical technique ( device closure) by DrPremAlva,pediatric cardiologist. Since they were from a poor socio-economic strata ,the procedure was done free of cost to the patient in AJ hospital , Mangalore. Now Naina is free of any symptoms ,doing all her normal activities and attending school regularly.

Success Story 2

Ranat (name changed) was a bubbly 3 month old baby. Her parents noticed that he was breathing faster than normal. He was unable to drink milk from his mother and had excessive sweating on his forehead. He once had fever and cough and was taken to the pediatrician for the same. On evaluation he was suspected to have a heart murmur and referred to us. A cardiac heart scan was done and he was found to have two large holes in the heart – a VSD and PDA. He was also noted to have symptoms of heart failure and the heart pressures were very high.
Hence he was put on anti failure medications and followed up. His symptoms persisted and he failed to gain adequate weight. We decided to operate on him at 6 months age. An open heart surgery was performed in our hospital by DR Gourav Shetty , pediatric cardiac surgeon and he recovered from his symptoms .The procedure was done free of cost in AJ hospital, Mangalore. He is now a little boy who loves to play with his toys and his tricycle.