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| Jaya, 15 minutes old, gets pacemake |
| Jaya, 15 minutes old, gets pacemaker in US
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 16-February-2012
7:39:11 AM |
| The name Jaya in Hindi means victorious. And little Jaya Maharaj was just that, when she became one of the smallest recipients of a pacemaker when she was just 15 minutes old.
A team of doctors at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital determined the girl born nine weeks premature had only hours to live if they did not perform the surgery.
Jaya, who was diagnosed in the womb with a severe heart ailment, entered the world with a heart rate of 45 beats per minute. A healthy newborn's has a heartbeat of 120 to 150 per minute.
"The only way to save this baby was to deliver the baby right away and then the pacemaker," said Dr Katsuhide Maeda, the surgeon whose steady hand stitched the pacemaker's electrical leads to Jaya's walnut-sized heart. Stanford announced details of the operation this week.
During a routine prenatal visit, doctors told Leanne Maharaj, 26, and Kamneel Maharaj, 31, that their first child's heart rate was dangerously low. They learned that their daughter suffered from congenital heart block, in which the mother's immune system mistakenly attacks the nerve fibres that cause the foetus' heart to beat.
The prognosis was grim
Doctors would have to induce labour and force the baby to be born as early as possible to correct the ailment before her heart failed. But Jaya grew and gained weight as her parents waited, giving them hope.
"We were worried, but at the same time we were hopeful that she was fighting inside and doing the best she can," said Kamneel Maharaj, an information technology manager in Silicon Valley.
Dr Valerie Chock, the neonatologist who counselled the couple, said determining when the baby should be born involves a delicate set of calculations. The baby should be delivered as soon as possible while still allowing her to gestate so her organs develop enough to support life outside the womb.
"Unfortunately, a lot of babies in this position don't even survive childbirth," Dr Chock said.
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