JOIN USAddressing a press conference, Senior Cardiologist Dr K Mukund said that an open heart surgery was conducted on child Gowravu, who hails from Kinnikambla, by a team led by Dr A G Balakrishnan and Dr Anand Kalyan.
The Heart-Hand syndrome is also called by different names including ‘Holt-Oram syndrom’, ‘Cardiomelic syndrome’, ‘Heart Upper Limb syndrome’ and so on. The syndrome is associated with absence of finger of the upper limb and absence of the fore-arm bones along with commonly found heart defect - ‘Ventricular Septal Defect’ (VSD), absence of partition between the upper chambers of the heart, he explained. The boy had upper limb deformities, breathing difficulty, bluish dicoloration of lips, ears, nose, fingers and toes. He was evaluated thoroughly and was found to have a very rare combination of birth defects and diagnosed to be suffering from ‘Tetrology of Fallot’s’, commonly known as blue baby syndrome, Mukund said. “VSD was closed and the obstruction to the pulmonary artery was corrected. He was discharged and has started attending school. While the treatment cost was about Rs 1.67 lakh, the Government of Karnataka sanctioned Rs 60,000 through Yashaswini Scheme and the rest was borne by the Charitable Trust of the hospital.