full

Today

Dr. Zareen and Dr. Lalit have seen him twice post discharge and points out he

has gained 500 grams since discharge. Both doctors feel the baby has done

exceptionally well and is well on his way to recovery.

Anesthesia

The surgery was done under

general anesthesia which Dr. Lalit

tells is a first for a baby of just

12 days of age at our hospital.

He adds, “Every aspect of this

surgery had its own set of risks

we could have lost the baby at any

point but there were concerted

efforts of the nursing department,

anesthesia department, the

pediatric department, as well as the

obvious inputs from the surgery

department.”

The Surgery Details

The liver was brought back

surgically and the hole in the

diaphragm was closed which

is called Primary repair of the

diaphragm just using sutures.

Beyond that, Dr. Lalit explains

the lung was also expanding well

which is good. “Once the liver is

brought back, we put in a plastic

tube into the chest called a chest

tube in case the baby develops

fluid or air and all intestines were

brought back into the abdomen

and the abdomen was closed with

sutures,” he says. The baby did

quite well and was on a breathing

machine initially and well taken

care of by the neo-natal unit with

excellent care.

Prof.Dr. Zareen

adds after the high risk surgery

was the phase of critical post-

operative period with the baby on

Great Teamwork

In particular, Dr. Zareen commends the marvelous job

the nursing department did, both pre-operatively and

post operatively, as well as the very experienced pediatric

surgeon. She tells, “Whatever we can do, if the nursing

team is not up to mark, there can be potential problems.

Certain special things were required from our nurses;

one was minimal handling of the baby, proper ventilator

care, and then of course special feeding instructions as

this baby was not fed orally for 13 days. The technique of

feeding was very gradual and slow and minute by minute.

Some of the babies with this kind of diagnosis have other

associated problems but fortunately this baby did not.”

mechanical ventilator support,

fully sedated and paralyzed so

that the wounds would heal

nicely and for the lungs to expand

properly. Also not forgetting, the

slow and gradual feeding and

fluids and electrolyte balance to

be taken care of.

May/June 2015