In the First Medical Association of Lviv, they started rescuing newborns with critical heart defects. A baby with a transposition of the main arteries of the heart was operated on by pediatric cardiac surgeons of St. Nicholas Hospital. The operation was performed the next day after birth.
Every year in Ukraine, about 80-100 children are born with transposition of the main arteries. The newborn Mykhailik is one of them. The child was diagnosed with a critical defect immediately after birth. The two main arteries leaving the boy’s heart were switched: the aorta came from the right ventricle, and the pulmonary artery came from the left. But everything should be the other way around. This congenital defect is accompanied by cyanosis – blueness of the skin. After all, due to a severe violation of blood circulation, oxygen did not reach the child’s organs in the required amount. Therefore, accompanied by a resuscitation team of doctors, Mykhailo was transported from Ivano-Frankivsk to a children’s hospital in Lviv the very next day.
To save the child, the operation must be performed in the first days of life. Cardiac surgeons immediately carried out a radical correction – replaced the main arteries, returning them to the correct position, and transplanted coronary arteries – small arteries that feed the heart muscle. The operation lasted more than four hours and was successful. The child was discharged on the 10th day after the intervention. Everything is fine with him.
“Children born with transposition of the main vessels quickly fall into a critical condition. Without surgical intervention, about 30% of babies with this diagnosis die within the first week of life, and another 70% die within the next six months. Therefore, it is very important to provide the necessary help in time,” the First Medical Association of Lviv emphasizes.