M A I N   N E W S

Rare surgery on Tanzanian girl
Mohammed Shafeeq

Hyderabad, July 18
While the nation’s attention was focused on the open heart surgery on Pakistani girl Noor Fatima in Bangalore, a complicated and rare procedure on an 18-month-old Tanzanian girl here went unnoticed.

Philippa was born with a complicated congenital heart disease — two arteries arising from one ventricle, two holes in the heart and narrow arteries supplying blood to lungs.

According to doctors at the Apollo Hospital here, she was brought in with 200 per cent double outlet right ventricle, where both aorta and pulmonary artery arise from the right ventricle with no connection to the left ventricle and also two heart defects — atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect.

As in Noor’s case, Philippa’s mother Melanius brought her to India, as doctors in Dar-es-Salaam neither had the expertise nor the facilities to treat such a complicated case.

“We took the first available flight to Hyderabad without waiting for government funds as the delay would have cost Philippa’s life,” said Melanius, a technician.

Philippa had an uneventful recovery and will return home along with her parents in a couple of days. — IANS