This baby beat Covid, rare heart condition

New Delhi: A two-and-a-half-month-old child born with rare heart condition also tested positive for Covid-19. His parents had lost hope that he would survive, but the infant beat both diseases and came out a winner recently.

Soon after Sanchit’s birth on March 7, doctors found him suffering from transposition of the great arteries. It is a congenital defect in which the two main arteries connected to the heart are switched. The aorta is connected to the heart’s right ventricle instead of the left ventricle and the pulmonary artery is connected to the left ventricle instead of the right ventricle.

This created a situation in which impure blood was getting circulated and his body never received the oxygen it needed. “Initially, we tried to get him treated locally. But it didn’t work. The doctors then suggested that my child could only be saved at AIIMS. So I brought him here,” Kalpnath Rao, the child’s father, told TOI.

By the time the child reached AIIMS on May 7, his heart had turned weaker and he was very blue, Dr A K Bisoi, professor in the department of cardio-thoracic surgery at AIIMS, said. An emergency surgery was planned to save him.

“But before that, we needed to test him for Covid-19. Unfortunately, the test came positive. His parents were then tested for the viral infection and they were positive too,” the doctor said.

From May 8 to May 18, the child remained in ICU at AIIMS Trauma Centre. On May 23, open heart surgery was conducted to restore normal blood circulation. “It was a three-hour procedure,” Dr Bisoi said.

He added that the child’s recovery is satisfactory and he is likely to be discharged soon. “When my child tested positive for Covid-19, I almost gave up. I thought he couldn’t be saved. But the doctors gave us the confidence and never let us lose hope,” the child’s father, who runs a small business, said.