Kochi: Newborn under treatment at Lisie Hospital

Kochi: The one-day-old baby with a serious cardiac problem brought from Malappuram to Lisie Hospital here early on Thursday is under the care of the doctors. “The next 48 hours are crucial for the infant,” said the team of doctors led by Dr. Edwin Francis, head of the paediatric cardiology department, and Dr. Thomas Mathew, paediatric cardiac surgeon.

The doctors have successfully completed the first phase of treatment to improve oxygen level in the blood of the infant.

It was the timely intervention of Health Minister K. K. Shylaja which helped save the life of the baby who was in a critical condition. The infant born on Wednesday morning in a hospital at Edakara has a serious condition called ventricular septal defect with pulmonary atresia. The baby was born without one of the pulmonary arteries and has a hole in the wall of its heart. The baby was shifted to another hospital at Perinthalmanna where the condition was diagnosed.

The doctors asked the relatives to take the baby to either Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, or Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.

At this point, the infant’s maternal uncle Jiyas wrote a comment on the Facebook page of the minister seeking assistance.

Within minutes, the minister replied saying that the baby’s treatment will be included under the government’s Hridyam project. And necessary arrangements were made to shift the infant to Lisie Hospital, the minister said.

The ambulance carrying the infant started from Perinthalmanna by 11.15 p.m. on Wednesday and reached Lisie hospital by 1.30 a.m. on Thursday.