Mumbai / Kolkata, 23rd May 2025: A nine-month-old baby girl from Hili in Dakshin Dinajpur has made a miraculous recovery after undergoing a rare, life-saving cardiac procedure without surgery at Medica Superspecialty Hospital (A unit of Manipal Hospitals Network) by Dr. Anil Kumar Singhi, Head – Paediatric Cardiology & Senior Interventional Cardiology, Medica Superspecialty Hospital (A unit of Manipal Hospitals Network) with the critical support of a multidisciplinary team comprising doctors from Anaesthesia, Cardiology, and Paediatrics, along with the CTVS surgical team, who were on standby to handle any emergency.. The procedure was performed under the Government of West Bengal’s Sishu Saathi scheme, which ensures free treatment for children with heart diseases because the child’s family, dependent on agriculture, could not have afforded the advanced treatment otherwise.
Baby “Ananya” (name changed), born to a farmer’s family, had been having trouble in breathing and poor weight gain since early infancy during the end of 2024. Her parents grew increasingly worried as her condition worsened and she failed to thrive despite medications. At around four months of age, she was diagnosed locally with a complex congenital heart defect.
She was referred to Medica Superspecialty Hospital, where a detailed evaluation by the Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease team, led by Dr. Anil Kumar Singhi, revealed a rare and serious defect called aortopulmonary window. This abnormal connection between the heart’s two major arteries — the aorta and the pulmonary artery — was causing four times the normal blood flow into her lungs, causing her heart failure.
While explaining her condition, Dr. Anil Kumar Singhi, shared, “This defect is typically treated through open-heart surgery, ideally before six months of age. At nine months, the risk of lung damage was high, but we decided to attempt a less invasive transcatheter closure at Medica. We inserted a closure device through tiny blood vessels in the baby’s leg, guided it to her heart, and sealed the defects all under sedation and local anesthesia. Though the first attempt was unsuccessful, we persisted and succeeded on the second try. The device was positioned perfectly, and the baby’s lung pressure dropped dramatically within minutes.” He further added, “Closing such a large heart defect in such a small child without open-heart surgery is rarest of rare. Her quick recovery shows what is medically possible with timely intervention and the right expertise.”
The procedure was done on 14th May 2025, and the baby was shifted to the ICU for observation and discharged the very next day, stable, smiling, and feeding well — a testament to the power of minimally invasive modern cardiac care.
Expressing her gratitude with tears in her eyes, Ananya’s mother said, “We had lost all hope. She was not eating, not growing, always gasping. We had no money for surgery. But the doctors at Medica treated her like their own child. Thanks to them and the government’s help, our daughter is alive and smiling today.”
Dr. Ayanabh Debgupta, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Manipal Hospitals – East, expressed, “Manipal Hospitals, always strives to provide state-of-the-art to all patients, including those from underserved communities. This inspiring case of baby Ananya’s recovery through a novel, non-surgical cardiac procedure under the Sishu Sathi scheme is a testament not only to the clinical skills of our team at Medica, part of Manipal Hospitals, but also to our vision to make advanced healthcare accessible to all.”
This case marks a proud milestone for Medica Superspecialty Hospital’s Pediatric Cardiology department and reaffirms their commitment to providing world-class cardiac care to even the most economically vulnerable children.
