3.5-year-old Russian boy gets new lease of life with a complex 'Berlin Heart' surgery

Three-and-half-year-old Fedrenko Lev sports a smile and waves his left hand signaling his recovery from a complex Biventricular Berlin Heart Implantation as he poses for a picture. His parents profusely thanked doctors at a private hospital here who performed the surgery in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic overcoming several challenges.

The child from Russia, with severe restrictive cardiomyopathy, was referred to MGM Health Care here in 2019 for treatment, and he needed two heart pumps and Paediatric Biventricular pumps are made only in Germany by a company called “Berlin Heart”.

Though doctors here were ready to perform the surgery, there were challenges as the child’s condition worsened during the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Engineers from Berlin could not come personally to install the external console, but the challenges were met as they oversaw technicians at the hospital fit the apparatus via video conferencing.

And on May 25, 2020, the first such surgery Biventricular Berlin Heart Implantation was performed in the entire South East Asia, Middle East, and Africa regions on a three-and-a-half-year-old child.

The announcement of Lev’s recovery was made by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and directors of MGM Health Care via video conferencing.

The surgery was performed by a team headed jointly by Dr K R Balakrishnan and Dr Suresh Rao of MGM Health Care. Doctors who performed the complex surgery on the child said the three-and-a-half-year-old was managed with medicines for two months and that his condition began to deteriorate slowly.

“The child had recurrent heart failure and suffered two cardiac arrests but was revived after performing CPR. The baby was less than 10 kg and the only option was to install Berlin Heart, but the Covid-19 pandemic posed several challenges in performing the surgery. Finally, we could do it on May 25, 2020 and the baby is now doing fine,” Dr Rao said.

After being on a ventilator for two days, the child was wheeled into the cardiac ICU where his condition was monitored round-the-clock. “It was a pleasant child and it was a pleasant experience to manage…the baby can live a normal life and play like children of his age. But the baby has to take blood thinners life-long,” Dr Rao added.

The parents of the child spoke in Russian, which was translated in English, thanking the doctors for making their son smile again. “We are happy and thankful to doctors in Chennai who performed the surgery successfully. We can go home back with satisfaction,” they said.

On the challenges, Dr K R Balakrishnan said technical teams at the hospital and of the company in Europe were in constant touch and connected via video conferencing for installing the equipment.

“Usually engineers from Germany and Britain would have come here to install the machine, but the installation was done by our staff on guidance from the engineers via video conferencing. It was challenging but technology came handy and we were successful,” he said.

The surgeon also said the doctors’ team at the hospital here and those from the company in Germany had a virtual meeting everyday to discuss the child’s health condition.