Viagra helps a four-month-old baby survive
POSTED June 5, 2009 - 17:43 | POSTED BY Pankhuri Kapoor
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on June 5, 2009 - 18:07
The baby girl was operated on April 7 this year at Malar Hospital, a Fortis healthcare division in Chennai, by cardiac surgeon K R Balakrishnan and his team of doctors.
The baby was then kept in a ‘ventilator’ for a period of 40 days for observation under the supervision of the hospital nurses.
The baby’s condition
Tanisha Saha, the wonder baby, was suffering from an exceptional case of congenital heart dysfunction since her birth and had difficulty in breathing since her second month. She often turned blue due to the condition.
“She had cyanotic congenital heart defect, which affects only one in a lakh. Her heart was on the right side with a hole in it coupled with an ineffective and underdeveloped right lung,” informed Dr Balakrishnan.
The caesarian child was born in Kolkatta and referred to Chennai for treatment. She suffered four respiratory attacks on the way to Chennai.
Tanisha’s operation was prolonged because of extremely high blood pressure that was resulting in the blood flowing to the heart from the wrong direction.
An odd treatment
The anti-impotency drug, Viagra, was given orally in the form of ‘Silbenfril’. The drug controlled her blood pressure and made her operation possible.
The complicated operation lasted for four hours and finally relieved the baby from the heart defect, giving her a new normal and healthy life.
The operation cost Rs 4 lakhs. Out of this, Rs 1.5 lakhs was donated by the team of doctors who operated on her.
The child was suffering from Scimitar syndrome, a rare condition in congenital heart disorder which in majority of the cases causes death of the baby in the first year of birth. That makes Tanisha’s survival nothing short of a miracle.
