‘Proud of India’s doctors': PM Modi lauds AIIMS doctors for successful heart surgery on baby in womb

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lauded the efforts of the AIIMS Delhi doctors team who performed a successful rare procedure on a grape-size heart of a fetus in 90 seconds. He said the country is proud of its doctors' dexterity and innovation. 

"Proud of India's doctors for their dexterity and innovation," PM Modi tweeted quoting Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's tweet.

Mandaviya, who shared the story in his tweet wrote, “I congratulate the team of doctors of @AIIMS_NewDelhi for performing the successful rare procedure on grape size heart of a fetus in 90 seconds. My prayers for the well-being of the baby and the mother.”

Doctors at AIIMS Delhi performed successful balloon dilation in a grape-sized baby's heart in the mother's womb. A 28-year-old pregnant patient was admitted to the hospital with three previous pregnancy losses. 

The parents wished to continue the current pregnancy after the doctors communicated about the child's heart condition and consented to the procedure with a wish to improve the outcome, according to the news agency ANI. 

The procedure was done at the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre, AIIMS. The team of interventional cardiologists and fetal medicine specialists performed a successful procedure.

The team of doctors from Department of Cardiology & Cardiac Anesthesia, along with Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology (Fetal medicine) of AIIMS informed that the fetus and the mother are both doing well after the procedure."

“We are monitoring the growth of the heart chambers to ultimately determine the baby's future management. Some types of serious heart diseases can be diagnosed while the baby is in the mother's womb. Sometimes, treating them in the womb may improve the outlook for the baby after birth and lead to near normal development," they said. 

This procedure is called Balloon dilation of an obstructed valve in the baby's heart. It is done under ultrasound guidance, ANI reported. 

Explaining the procedure, the senior doctor who performed the surgery said. “We placed a needle through the mother's abdomen into the baby's heart. Then, using a balloon catheter, we opened the obstructed valve to improve blood flow. We expect and hope that the baby's heart will develop better and the heart disease will be less severe at birth.”

“Such a procedure is very challenging as it can risk even the life of a fetus that also it has very precisely. Everything has to be done under all ultrasound guidance. Commonly all the procedures we do under angiography, but can't be done. Everything has to be done under ultrasound guidance,” the doctors opined. 

"And then it has to be done very quickly because you're going to puncture the major heart chamber. So if something goes wrong, the baby will die. It has to be very quick, shoot and dilate and come out," the senior doctor from the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre at AIIMS said.

"We did measure the timing, it was only 90 seconds," he added. 

(With ANI inputs)