Abdullah survives complex surgery

Mumbai, Apr 30 (UNI) Abdullah, who was born to Zeenat Qureshi on April 10 with a rare deformity with his intestine and liver in the chest, has survived a complex surgery and is now waiting to go home.

Dr Shobha Sharma of Surya Hospital told UNI that ''Baby Abdullah was born at Dr Gupte's nursing home at Mahim and was brought to us as he was having difficulty in breathing. The baby weighed 2.96 kgs, almost three kgs at birth. We took an X-ray and made a diagnosis that the baby had a rare condition called Diaphragmatic Hernia.'' It is a rare kind of deformity which can be fatal and the occurrence is one per 3,500 live babies. It normally happens on the left side and even more rarely on the right side. This creates severe suffocation of the lungs and makes it impossible for the new born baby to breathe normally without a ventilator. Hence an immediate surgery is a must which is a high risk and high cost procedure.

Dr Shobha said ''Further Ultrasonography and MRI scan revealed the intestine, liver and gall bladder were in the right thoracic activity. The lungs were very small, underdeveloped hypoplastic, thus resulting in breathing complications. Then Dr Mathure and Dr Pankaj Shroff took a decision to operate on the baby and put the abdominal content back. The two hour surgery on the baby was successful and now the baby is totally normal.'' ''We anticipated complications. The baby was ventilated for two days and subsequently settled down. Now he is sustaining without ventilator and has started taking oral feed. Right now the baby is in the NICU waiting to go home,'' she said.

She said ''Dr Mathure and his team deserve praise for their timely decision and a miraculous breakthrough surgery which saved the new born baby's life.'' UNI