Media Release

Mangaluru, Nov 22: A three-year-old girl was having difficulty playing with her friends. She used to get tired easily. She also had a lot of pain in both her legs after any activity. She was brought to AJ hospital for the above complaints.

Dr Prem Alva, consultant pediatric cardiologist did a heart scan and found that she had two heart diseases from birth. There was a medium-sized hole in the centre of the heart called ventricular septal defect. She was also found to have blockage of the blood vessel going to the lower part of the body called coarctation of aorta. This caused the pulse in the legs to be very feeble. The parents were devastated on finding out that their little daughter had two heart diseases. It was decided to treat this rare condition without surgery.

She was taken to the cath lab where Dr Prem Alva did a procedure to put a button (device) in the heart to close the hole in the heart. Following this, in the same sitting, the block in the blood vessel was opened using balloon dilatation called coarctoplasty. The procedure went on successfully and there was no complication.

The little girl was discharged within two days of the procedure. She can play now with her friends and lead a normal life. Dr GururajTantry provided anaesthesia during the procedure. The treatment was given free of cost through healthcare scheme funded by the government of Karnataka.

AJ Hospital & Research Centre is the only centre in Dakshina Kannada to have full-fledged pediatric cardiology department with full time consultant pediatric cardiologist.