Ishika, 7 years of age hailing from Ludhiana, was born with a congenital condition of a hole in her heart leading to very high pressure in the lungs (a large ventricular septal defect and severe pulmonary hypertension).
Ever since the child had been leading a difficult life as she was suffering from various heart and lung-related diseases along with frequent episodes of pneumonia and breathlessness on exertion. Ishika wasn’t able to lead a normal life in which kids at her age do. Rather she required hospitalization every alternate month owing to her poor health and subsequent weakness.
Ishika’s Parents were worried about her deteriorating condition and had consulted most of the hospitals in Delhi and Punjab. The parents had been under financial stress and post-COVID 19 unavailability of beds had become an additional challenge, leading to a delay in Ishika’s treatment.
Ishika was referred to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals from a hospital in Ludhiana after developing persistent breathlessness. The child needed immediate surgery as delaying it any further would have risked her life.
Apollo hospitals assisted the child and her father to travel to Delhi, despite restrictions on travel due to COVID 19 by writing to the District Magistrate of Ludhiana and getting approvals for inter-state travel, consequently on 5th May, patient Ishika was admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital,
The family had also been seeking monetary support for the treatment of their child, hence Apollo hospitals helped them raise money for the surgical expenses through crowd fundraising and other cooperative organizations.
Post admission, Ishika underwent an ECHO, which revealed a VSD- ventricular septal defect (a hole in the heart). Ishika was admitted under the supervision of Dr. Muthu Jothi, Senior Consultant, Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, Interventional Cardiology at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, who along with his team of experts performed the high-risk surgery.
Post the surgery, Dr. Jothi said, ”Congenital heart diseases can be life-threatening for children especially when the treatment is delayed. If not detected and simultaneously treated at birth, the child develops symptoms like shortness of breath, heart murmur, frequent respiratory and lung infections over the early years. In this case, 7 year old, Ishika had been born with a very large ventricular septal (VSD) defect leading o lung hypertension. This defect allows oxygen-rich blood to mix with oxygen-poor blood, making the child susceptible to life-threatening conditions like heart failure. Our major concern in this particular case was the delay in her treatment leading to a deterioration in her health condition accompanied by weakness. Immediately after her admission, we performed a successful surgery for the closure of the VSD/hole in the heart. The child’s body responded very well to the procedure and we discharged her within five days of compulsory post-operative care.”
While expressing his gratitude to the team of doctors, Ishika’s father said,” We had seen our child struggle for years with this condition, and even after consulting with multiple doctors we could not get her operated owing to financial constraints. We would like to thank the team at Indraprastha Apollo for their immense support throughout the procedure and for helping us get our daughter back to a normal life.”
