Chandigarh, September 13
The general belief in India that “blue babies” are doomed and cannot survive may soon become a misconception, as the use of Viagra for treating them has proved to be quite successful in the ongoing trials being undertaken at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and a few other places in the country.
Dr Savitri Shrivastava, senior cardiologist at Escorts and former head of the Cardiology Department at the Sanjay Gandhi Institute, today delivered Prof Bidwai Memorial Guest Lecture at the PGI.
Though an ethical Debate on using Viagra for treating a “blue baby” started after a Cochi-based doctor went public with the disclosure, the fact is this medication was being used on a trial basis by many other doctors since much earlier,” she said.
She said it was not appropriate to go to media with this disclosure till the procedure was standardised after being used on a number of such babies. “ I have myself used Viagra for treating two patients, aged six and 15 , and in both cases it worked well,” she remarked.
Elaborating on the prevalence of cardiac problems in children , she said the most common complaint was that of a hole in the heart. In blue babies” due to an obstruction in valves pure and unoxygenated blood gets mixed up. “The unfortunate part is that even today majority of parents have wrong notions that a child should be of a particular age and weight to undergo a cardiac procedure, whereas the timing of the treatment is solely decided by the condition of the patient,” she reasoned out.
Dr Shrivastava, said the level of awareness amongst the Indian masses about cardiac problems in children was very low as majority believed that it was a problem of adults. She added that it is only timely help that would save the life of a child, especially in a very severe and complicated case.
She said symptoms like a child being blue, feeding difficulty with unprovoked sweating, badly underweight, and frequent bouts of pneumonia should be taken as warning signs for cardiac problems, needing immediate medical attention. She said one per cent of the live births in India were born with congenital heart defects, and their survival rate was very low as a majority died within the first year itself.
The piece of advice Dr Shrivastava had for parents suffering from cardiac problems was that they should start screening their child right from a tender age. “Another fact that needs to be driven home amongst public in our country is that balanced dietary habits and an exercise routine must be inculcated as seedlings of cardiac problems start sprouting early and the damage is already done by the time the problem is detected,” she explains.
She said that India was in no way lagging behind as the latest techniques in paediatric cardiology were concerned. But the number of such institutes was very few.
The lecture on “Interventions in Paediatric Cardiology” was organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr P.S. Bidwai, who is known as the father of paediatric cardiolgy in India. He was not only instrumental in starting the cardiac catheterisation laboratory at the PGI but also started the Paediatric Cardiology clinic.
The session was chaired by the PGI Director, Prof S.K. Sharma, while the Dean , Dr O.N. Nagi, and Prof Nakul Sinha head of the Cardiology Department at Sanjay Gandhi PGI at Lucknow, were the guests of honour.
