A 5-day-old baby girl from Uttar Pradesh weighing just 1.5 kgs as against the age-appropriate 2.8 Kg was operated on for twisted guts at Smart Hospital, Ghaziabad. The infant was detected for the condition and surgery was performed 5 days after the birth.
The patient was taken to 6 hospitals in the Delhi-NCR before but when the situation worsened, his parents landed at Ghaziabad-based Smart Hospital where the baby was immediately operated on for the condition. As per the doctors, the condition is called intestine malrotation which happens to the child in the womb. In this condition, the bowel twists and clogs the blood supply, and the survival of the baby even after the surgery is only miraculous.
On September 18 night, when the baby was brought to the hospital, the multi-disciplinary team of consultants including senior physicians, and a senior pediatrician decided to operate on the baby immediately. In an hour-long surgery, the entangled loops of the bowel were removed. “Twisted intestine or malrotation is one of the most life-threatening birth defects that if not operated on in time would stop the blood supply and strangle the baby to death,” said the senior pediatrician Dr. Naved Akhtar at Smart Hospital, Ghaziabad. As per the research survey, the cases of malrotation and volvulus appear once in 20,000 births and are one of the most challenging deformities to treat.
The baby girl is still under observation and may take a month or two to recover. The infant’s parents came from an unprivileged background and the hospital provided the family a reasonable concession on surgery and after-care.