Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Dehradun, has performed a life-saving surgery on a 22-year-old woman suffering from a rare congenital heart disease, making it the first such successful operation in the State.
The surgery was performed to repair total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), a defect in which veins from the lungs attach to the heart in abnormal positions, leading oxygenated blood to enter or leak into the wrong chamber.
While addressing the media persons in a Press conference held at its campus here on Saturday, Dr Saurabh Juneja, Cardiac Surgeon, said that the patient consulted at Fortis Escorts, Dehradun, when she started tiring easily on exertion and experiencing breathlessness and detailed cardiac investigations revealed that she was suffering from TAPVC, a condition that required immediate medical intervention. An intracardiac TAPVC repair was successfully performed at the hospital on March 12 by team of medical officers which include Dr Juneja, and Dr Yogendra Singh, Cardiologist, and Dr Pankaj R Ingole, Anesthetist. The patient was subsequently discharged and is now doing well. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Saurabh Juneja said that TAPVC was a rare congenital defect and only 50 per cent of all infants with the disease are able to survive beyond three months. Early surgical intervention is the only solution. However, these surgeries were so far possible only in large metropolitan cities.