By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram
Dubai-based Filipino Gil Merced can now run, jump and play like his friends after a complicated surgery in Kerala.
The 10-year-old was suffering from Tetralogy of Fallot - a rare life-threatening congenital heart defect that does not let enough blood enter the lungs for oxygenation. A few steps of walking were enough to drop his oxygen levels and cause fainting.
He successfully underwent the procedure at the newly-opened Aster MedCity Kochi, part of the Dubai-based healthcare conglomerate that has presence across the Gulf region and in India.
The third child of Gil Gatdula and Mercedita, a couple from the Philippines working in Dubai, Gil could not undergo the surgery until now as his family could not afford to pay the exorbitant charges.
“His condition kept deteriorating and his parents kept trying their level best to raise funds for his treatment without much success. That is when St Mary’s Church in Dubai took his story to the world,” the hospital group said in a statement yesterday.
Dr Moopen’s Foundation, a charitable organisation, took up the cause of Gil’s treatment under its ‘Healing Touch’ initiative.
Gil and his family were flown to Kochi last month. On August 5, Dr Sajan Koshy performed “one of the most complex and specialised procedures in paediatric cardiac surgery,” the statement said.
Doctors say Gil is recovering fast and will return to Dubai this week.
Aster Medcity is a medical township with eight Centres of Excellence and one Multispecialty Hospital, providing advanced healthcare at affordable costs.
