By-pass surgery for minor girl

Visakhapatnam, Mar 23 (UNI) The Seven Hills Corporate Hospital Chief Cardiac Surgeon Shirish Borkar has performed a by-pass surgery on a 17-year-old girl here.

Talking to mediapersons yesterday he explained that the rare heart surgery was conducted on Varalakshmi, hailing from Salur here. The girl could not even walk due to excruciating pain in her chest before the surgery, he said. Ironically, Varalakshmi's brother died of heart attack due to the congenital disorder when he was just 14 years.

The girl had genetic skin problems since childhood, which her family was not aware of. This was due to high level of cholesterol present in her blood, the doctor said.

However, when she attended a free heart check-up camp conducted by the hospital, the doctors diagnosed her and found that she was suffering from familial hyperlipidemia, the condition in which cholesterol level would remain high since birth.

Angiography test revealed that there were severe blocks in the heart arteries including one of the main arteries. She was advised to undergo Coronary Arterial Bypass Graft (CABG). Since the patient was very poor, the Seven Hills Foundation decided to take care of the surgery costing Rs one lakh.

Dr Borkar used the latest techniques to perform the surgery, on the beating heart. The functioning of the heart was not stopped during the surgery, he said.

Doctors including Cardiologists S C Singh, V Sujatha, helped in and Hospital Superintendent M Dinkar also the surgery.

UNI