A two-member team of doctors at Maroof Hospital successfully performed its first pediatric cardiothoracic surgery on a six-month-old child with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) in Islamabad.
The spokesperson for MIH, Rubina Afzal, revealed that the procedure was performed by a team of foreign qualified pediatric cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons led by Dr. Mahim Akmal Malik and Dr. Muhammad Tariq Jamil.
She added that the patient was discharged after 72 hours.
Dr. Malik said that congenital heart defects are quite different from common adult heart diseases, and repairing hearts in small bodies is an added challenge.
Dr. Malik stated that Maroof Hospital’s Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons perform surgery for conditions like holes between chambers of the heart, valve problems, abnormal blood vessels, injuries to the heart, and other congenital and acquired heart defects.
VSD is characterized by a hole in the septum between the lower two chambers of the heart. This allows oxygen-rich blood to leak into the oxygen-poor blood chambers of the heart. While a small hole can close up itself, the child’s condition required surgery.
Source: Pro Pakistan