Doctors from the Surgery and Cardiovascular Interventions Ward of the Da Nang General Hospital and the Ho Chi Minh City Heart Institute recently saved the life of an 8-month-old baby girl from Hoi An’s Cam Pho Ward.  The baby was suffering from a congenital heart disease.

The baby girl had been rushed to the hospital with cyanosis of her body and severe respiratory failure.  With the help of an echocardiogram, doctors detected that the aorta and the pulmonary artery of the baby were interchangeably positioned.  The surgeons together performed a cardiovascular intervention on her to bring the arteries back to their normal positions and close the ventricular vent.

After the over 4-hour-long operation, the patient gradually recovered her health, and she has now been discharged from the hospital.

This was the first time such a complicated case of congenital heart disease had been dealt with at this hospital.

Dr Tran Ngoc Vu, who was directly involved in the surgery, warned that this case would have proved fatal if the doctors had not treated the patient promptly.  The mortality rate for this problem approaches over 90% of patients in the first year of their lives.