Jamshedpur : A seven-day-old baby born Bajrangi with extremely rare birth defect of heart protruding outside the rib-cage was successfully operated through a life-saving surgery at Brahmananda Narayana Multispeciality Hospital.
This rare birth defect called �Ectopia Cordis� is reported to happen in eight per billion births globally. The team of doctors comprising cardiac surgeons and plastic surgeons at Brahmananda Narayana Multispeciality Hospital carefully planned the surgery, which lasted for six hours.
The baby was delivered in the vehicle while the mother was being rushed to a nearby primary health centre. They were later referred to Brahmananda Narayana Multispeciality Hospital.
The first challenge for the team of doctors was to control the infection and simultaneously addressed other complications post which the surgery was performed.
Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Perwez Alam from Brahmananda Narayana Multispeciality Hospital said: �This was a very rare and complex surgery that involved team of doctors from Cardiac Surgery as well as Plastic Surgery.
The survival rate of this surgery is only 40 per cent, and if the heart was left outside the body for too long it would have resulted in immediate fatality.
The second phase of the surgery will be done after five months in which with the help of the plastic surgeons the rib cage wall will be reconstructed.
This will be followed by a third phase which includes repair of any other cardiac defects associated with his condition.� He also added, �This surgery is a first-of-its kind reported in Eastern India.�
This condition is a congenital malformation in which the heart is abnormally located either partially or totally outside of the rib-cage.
The ectopic or protruding heart can be found along a spectrum of anatomical locations, including the neck, chest, or abdomen. Globally, there have been only 250 such cases reported and about 23 cases in India.