After being turned away from several Government hospitals in the city, a 14-month-old infant from a poor family of Saharanpur was treated for a rare disease called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) in a private hospital in Delhi. After running from pillar to post, the child was admitted to the BlK Super Speciality Hospital on Monday with flooded lungs, high blood pressure and pneumonia where he was duly treated.
Mohammed Rushid, who lives in a mosque in Saharanpur, had reached Delhi a month back to get his son treated. He had rushed his son Zubair who was suffering from PDA since he was in the womb. The family was advised to visit Dr Vikas Kohli, Director and HOD at BlK Children’s Heart Institute, who offered Zubair a fresh lease of life. “Zubair’s condition was serious. He wasn’t gaining weight, remaining only at 7 kg. Ideally he should have 11 kg of weight under normal conditions,” Dr Kohli said.
PDA is present in all of us when we are in the mother’s womb. “It’s a bypass for the lungs and is supposed to close within first few days after birth. But in Zubair’s case it has not closed. The opening allowed oxygen-rich blood from the aorta to mix with oxygen-poor blood from the pulmonary artery. This strained his heart and increased blood pressure in the lung arteries,” Dr Kohli informed. “It was done through the groin vein. The process is similar to an angioplasty. From the groin the wire was passed into the heart and the PDA was crossed. Over this a catheter (a plastic tube like the ball pen refill but much longer) was passed over the wire to close the opening. The procedure is called Device Closure of PDA,” said Kohli. The condition can affect full-term infants; it’s common in preemies. PDA occurs in about 8 out of every 1,000 preemies, compared with 2 out of every 1,000 full-term babies.