VISAKHAPATNAM: A heart surgery was successfully performed on a nine-month-old girl, M. Tanuja, as part of the AP Government Child Health Care Scheme to remove "an abnormal connection" between the aorta and pulmonary artery.

Tanuja, daughter of Sattibabu and Ramanamma of Tarluwada village in Anandapuram mandal, was screened at a preliminary camp as part of the scheme here and was recommended for surgery.

Normal life possible
She had chest infection and this link between the aorta and pulmonary artery resulted in a constant murmur from the heart. The excessive blood flow into pulmonary artery, which caused discomfort to the child, was blocked via the surgery.

"The surgery took about one-and-a-half hours. The baby was fed on that day itself. She can lead a normal life and does not need medicines or even medical check-up in future," the intervention cardiologist of the hospital, K. Gopalakrishna, told a press conference here on Friday.

The Seven Hills Hospital was the first hospital here to perform a surgery under the Government's scheme and can perform 12 to 15 surgeries a week. It has the required number of specialists, paramedics and equipment, but is in need of blood in sufficient quantity. The hospital is hoping that the voluntary organisations would conduct more blood donation camps.

The surgery was performed by a team consisting of the chief cardio-thoracic surgeon, T. Rajendra Prasad, cardio-thoracic surgeron, Sitarama Rao, cardiac anaesthetists, V. Ramesh Babu and B.R. Mohana Rao. Neo-natologist, K. Seshagiri, and his team are monitoring the baby's condition after the surgery.

Subsidised rate
The medical superintendent of the hospital, M. Dinakar, said the hospital would perform surgeries under the scheme as soon as the patients were referred to it from the King George Hospital. The Government would subsidise the cost of surgeries under the scheme and the rate would be per cent lesser than that in NIMS, Hyderabad. The surgery on Tanuja would have cost her parents Rs.30,000 to 35,000.