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To tiny hearts with love
Free surgery for six babies
By Ishani Ranasinghe
Each year around five to ten thousand newborns are diagnosed with congenital heart disease, known to be the most common type of birth defect. The term congenital heart disease is used to indicate that a structural problem (or defect) is present in a baby's heart at birth.

A baby's heart begins to form shortly after conception. By the end of the second month of pregnancy, the baby's heart is completely formed. It is during this time that a congenital heart defect can occur. In this case, a part of the heart, heart valves, and/or blood vessels near the heart do not develop properly. As a result of this, blood flow can slow down, go in the wrong direction or even be blocked completely. Though this can be solved through surgery, the surgery per se is very sensitive.

Early this month Nawaloka Hospital (Pvt) Limited identified six babies as the most difficult cases. The children aged between just one month to two years received free treatment. "We did this in the memory of Meelin Dharmadasa, the late wife of our chairman Deshmanya K. Dharmadasa," said P. Withanage, manager of the Cardiac Unit.

The hospital brought in Dr. Robert Koehlo, a consultant paediatric surgeon of the Madras Medical Mission, a mission renowned to be one of the best paediatric units in the region. Together with anaesthetist Dr. Ninan Benjamin, Dr. Koehlo performed these four-hour long surgeries.

When it comes to congenital heart diseases, there are many type of heart defects: abnormal passages in the heart or between blood vessels, problem with the heart valves, placement or development of blood vessels near the heart and with development of the heart itself. The surgeries performed were for Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD), Fallots and AP Window.

Dr. A.G Jayakrishnan, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon of Nawaloka Hospital explained that ASD and VSD fall into the category of having abnormal passages in the heart or blood vessel. It is considered to be the more common of heart diseases, simply, a hole in the heart. "Having an ASD means there is a hole in the wall that separates the upper chambers (atria) of the heart," he says adding that this causes blood to leak from one atrium to the other.

"Fallot is a combination of four defects," he says explaining that this is one of the more complicated congenital heart diseases- Pulmonary valve stenosis the narrowing of the pulmonary valve that slows the flow of blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, VSD, Overriding aorta (defect where the aorta is positioned between the left and right ventricles, over the VSD) and right ventricular hypertrophy (the thickening of the right ventricle caused by the heart having to work harder as a result of the other defects.)

Ten days after their surgeries the six babies seemed quite content and their parents are grateful that their problems are behind them, with only a scar on their tiny chests.

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