CHENNAI: A two-month-old baby girl that underwent an open heart surgery was offered financial assistance under the Kalaignar Health Insurance Scheme of the State government.
Doctors at Sooriya Hospital performed a cardiac surgery on D. Divyashree, who had two holes in the heart that led to excessive shunting of blood into the lungs. The newborn suffered from chronic breathing difficulties and was admitted in the hospital a month ago.
A team of four doctors, led by heart surgeon Moosa Kunhi from the Institute of Heart Surgery of the hospital, decided to operate upon her to seal the holes in the heart and control the blood flow into the lungs.
“The six-hour surgery was successful and Divashree can now breathe easy,” paediatric cardiologist M. S. Ranjith told mediapersons here on Wednesday.
Over 40 lakh children in the country were born with cardiac defects. Cardiac surgeries for many of them were unaffordable and only two per cent received medical assistance, he added.
Under the Kalaignar Insurance Scheme, the State government covered most of the surgery expenses and the rest was donated by the hospital, Dr. Ranjith said.
A total of 20 cardiac surgeries at the hospital last month were covered under the insurance scheme and the beneficiaries did not face any difficulty in claiming the medical expenses, the hospital’s Managing Director C. P. Sree Kumar said. Thanking the government, Dinesh Kumar, father of the newborn, said the treatment would not have been possible without the financial assistance.