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Apparently today was going through the days news and there is this feature by Capital FM of baby Bhakita who only has 10 days left for an operation to be carried out. here is the story
[I]"Bhakita is five months, two weeks old.
The surgery has to be done before she is six months old on July 18.
To complicate matters, her heart condition – which was discovered by doctors when she was four months old – is complex and cannot be treated here in Kenya.
The doctors explained that Bhakita did not have the normal walls that divide the four heart chambers to separate clean and dirty blood (oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood).
"She was born as a normal baby. When she was four months old, she started losing weight. On further examination, the doctor found that she has a rare heart condition,” Bhakita’s mother recalls as she struggles to put on a brave face.
The diagnosis showed that Bhakita has one valve, meaning that clean and dirty blood mixes in the heart, a situation that tires lungs and can consequently lead to breathing complications.
If not treated before the age of six months, the condition results in Down’s Syndrome.
“Infants may also have trouble breathing and not grow well. Surgery is often done in infancy to close the hole and reconstruct the valves,” her medical summary done on June 7 indicates.
With such a condition, the body also lacks oxygen which results in failure of other crucial body organs.
“The doctor told us with time, if she does not undergo an urgent operation, her body colour will change to blue. So we will wake up one day and find that she has turned blue; when her body turns blue she cannot be operated on. Her kidneys will have collapsed and also all other body organs,” Bhakita’s mother Loise Mbuba explains.
Dr Naomi Gachara who is Bhakita’s paediatrician at the Mater Hospital’s Cardiac Clinic, says there is hope since her condition can be fully treated during infancy.
“She has complex congenital heart disease… Complete A-V canal defect with moderately to severe PAH. She requires total correction. As this type of surgery cannot be done locally, she is required to travel to India for total correction,” Dr Gachara explains.
PAH – Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension and A-V – Atrioventricular canal defect is ‘a complete atrioventricular canal defect which is a ‘combination of defects including a large hole in the centre of the heart and a single common valve instead of the separate tricuspid and mitral valves’.
The triscupid and mitral valves ‘separate the upper left heart chamber from the lower left heart chamber, and helps control blood flow through the heart’.
Baby Bhakita’s surgery in India requires Sh1.5 million.[/I]
Here is the link
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2015/07/you-can-save-baby-bakita-but-it-must-be-in-10-days/