KARACHI, Aug 6: Four-year-old Hamid and three-year-old Shamshad were given a new lease of life on Wednesday when holes in the sputum between the two chambers of their respective hearts were successfully plugged at the Cardiac Surgery Department of Civil Hospital.

Dr Abdul Bari and Dr Nehal performed the surgery. The two children, who hail from Interior Sindh, were detected with the condition sometime back following recurrent episodes of chest infection.

Their parents were advised by the doctors at their hometowns to consult cardiac surgeons in Karachi as surgery was the only option to ensure survival of the children with holes in their heart.

“The children, one of them from Khairpur Nathan Shah, were fortunate enough to be referred to us in time,” Dr Bari told APP, mentioning that it was often due to unnecessary delay that children with such condition were compelled to suffer.

Mentioning that some 100 cases of similar nature — hole in sputum between the two chambers of heart — had been operated upon at the department during the last two-and-a-half years, the surgeon said survival rate of these children, who belonged to different parts of the country, was 100 per cent.

The operation that might have cost these poor families Rs150,000 to Rs300,000 at private hospitals in the city was carried out free of charge at the Civil Hospital.

In reply to a question, Dr Bari said the heart ailment among children was often diagnosed during routine examination.

“The doctor examining the child noticing any additional sound apart from the normal heart beat may immediately recognise the defect,” he said.

Moreover, repeated chest infection, frequent bouts of cough, restlessness, sluggishness and fatigue without any reason besides retention of water in the lungs could also lead to the diagnosis of this condition.

According to Dr Bari, it is often the severity of symptoms as well as size of the holes which determine when to intervene or plug the holes through surgery.

Ideally, the most appropriate period could be the early age or the pre-school phase of life of the child as this helped them in the associated psychological trauma, Dr Bari said.

He also reminded that small size of holes which often got simultaneously close might force the surgeon to wait for four to five years.

If the size of holes is big or medium there is a need to assess the level of possible damage. For instance, if water retention is detected the surgeons may place a band on the arteries leading towards the lungs and wait for one-and-a-half-year to two years, and then move ahead with the procedure.

In case there is no associated complication the option is immediate open heart surgery, he said and stressed the need for regular perinatal examination of mothers and extensive medical check-up of infants by qualified paediatrician during the first few months of birth.

Earlier the defect is identified the better are chances of successful surgical option, he added.

The surgeon also referred to the case of Noor Fatima who was diagnosed with “Tetralogy of Fallot,” which again was manifested through holes in the heart and defect in valves. The child was treated at a hospital in Bangalore in July this year.

The doctor said cases of this nature had also been successfully treated at his department during the last two years.

Over 25 children from all over the country inflicted with Fallot’s Tetralogy were said to be operated upon at the Cardiac Surgery Department with a survival rate of 87 per cent. Mortality rate in such cases is generally recorded to be 13 per cent across the globe.—APP