Infant gets heart arteries switched

A two-month-old blue baby from Adilabad was operated upon in Hyderabad as the two major arteries to the heart were in the wrong position due to which the body didn’t get enough oxygen. Usually such babies die in the first one month of life but this baby survived and was weighing 2.6 kgs which allowed for the operation to take place.

Dr Sunil Kumar Swain, senior pediatric cardiologist said, “In a normal person the aorta from the left side pumps pure blood and the pulmonary artery on the right side takes the impure blood to the lungs for purification. In the case of this child, it was reversed. Due to this the body got impure blood and the lips, tongue, nails and feet were all blue. The heart also got impure blood and the heart muscles were weakened. Such children are not able to survive after the fourth month. And in the fourth month, surgery is not possible as the heart muscles deteriorate completely.”

While there are two coronary arteries from the heart, in the case of this child there was only one and its diameter was only 1 millimeter. The doctors had to conduct a by-pass surgery to switch the arteries.