New Delhi: A 15-year-old girl from Kota, who had been visiting AIIMS Delhi since the age of two for treatment of a complex congenital heart defect, died at the hospital early Tuesday, 14 days after her family’s prolonged wait for corrective heart surgery was reported.
Girl was being assessed for possible transplant
Tanvi had been admitted to AIIMS on August 24 and was undergoing evaluation for a possible heart-lung transplant. Her father, Mukesh Pariyani, had earlier alleged that surgery dates were fixed and subsequently changed over several years, but the corrective procedure never took place.
According to AIIMS professor and head of CTVS, Dr V Devagourou, Tanvi was diagnosed with ventricular septal defect (VSD) with pulmonary atresia in 2012 and evaluated for surgery in 2013. He said surgery was ruled out in 2018 and she was subsequently managed medically.
An AIIMS document dated January 31, 2014, had recorded the diagnosis and recommended unifocalisation and conduit surgery, estimated at Rs 1.2 lakh.
Condition deteriorated after transplant work-up
As part of the transplant evaluation, Tanvi underwent an endoscopy on Monday. Dr Devagourou said she complained of fatigue and weakness at around 2.50 am on Tuesday and became cyanotic, with her oxygen saturation falling to 48 per cent.
She was given oxygen and subsequently suffered a hypoxic spell leading to cardiac arrest. Despite efforts to revive her, she was declared dead at 5.06 am.
Earlier assessments had found her cardiac anatomy to be complex, with major blood vessels supplying the lungs absent. Doctors had said corrective surgery was no longer possible and a heart-lung transplant was being considered.
Father seeks answers over daughter’s death
Pariyani said he had not received a satisfactory explanation for his daughter’s death and alleged that hospital staff repeatedly sought documents and, at various points, pressured him to take discharge.
He has also sought an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Tanvi’s death and has not yet taken her body from the hospital.
The allegations made by the family could not be independently established. AIIMS and doctors did not respond to specific questions about why corrective surgery was not performed after the 2013 evaluation and why it was ruled out in 2018.