Mangaluru: 8 year old Ganga (name changed) hailed from a village in Udupi district. She had breathing difficulty and was unable to run and play with her friends as she used to in the past. She was referred to Pediatric Cardiology department at A J Hospital and Research Centre.
Dr Prem Alva, Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist evaluated her with a heart scan and detected a rare coronary anomaly in her. Coronary artery is nothing but a blood vessel supplying the heart muscle. In her case, the blood vessel was arising abnormally from the vessel carrying the impure blood.
This is a condition called ALCAPA (Anomalous left coronary artery arising from the right pulmonary artery). This further caused weakening of her heart muscle leading to leakage from her mitral valve and enlargement of the heart causing her breathing difficulty.
She was taken up for a complex surgical repair which was done by the Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon where the blood vessel was re-implanted to the normal site. Her post-operative period was uneventful and she fully recovered.
The anaesthesia and post-operative care were done by Dr Gururaj Tantry and Dr Suhas M K. She is attending school regularly and able to play normally like other children. She hailed from a poor farming family and the surgery was done free of cost to the patient.
