Doctors give new lease of life to child after performing 11-hour heart surgery

Doctors give new lease of life to child after performing 11-hour heart surgery

Adam poses for a photograph at his residence.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), the UAE's largest public healthcare network, has successfully completed an important medical milestone after performing a breakthrough surgery on an infant suffering from the most complex congenital anomalies in the heart.

Malformations involved all cardiac levels from abnormal inflows to the heart, absence of a barrier between the ventricles and the atria, abnormal intracardiac valves and of the great arteries that were also originating from the wrong chambers.

The complex corrective heart surgery, first accomplished in its kind in the UAE, was performed at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), a SEHA-affiliated hospital, with the use of the latest imaging devices and 3D printing technology and to accurately diagnose the patient's condition and devise an appropriate surgical plan.

Dr. Mariam Butti Al Mazrouei, Chief Executive Officer, SKMC, said: "Pediatric cardiac surgery is one of the surgical super specialties offered at SKMC. With a team of specialized and distinguished surgeons, we were able to successfully perform corrective heart surgery locally, which otherwise would have to be performed overseas, - keeping newborns and infants, like Adam, close to home.

A combo image shows a doctor holding a 3D printed heart next