They removed a primary an ‘intracardiac yolk sac germ cell tumour’ from the heart of Aadhi Fabeer.
The tumour was detected when Aadhi’s parents recently took him to a hospital in Dubai after he fell ill.
Developed both inside and outside the heart, the tumour was removed in a nine-hour-long procedure at the VPS Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi
“It’s a rarest of rare case,” said Dr M K Moosa Kunhi, who headed a 30-member team that carried out the surgery.
“The yolk sac tissue, which develops on the third day of pregnancy, is usually dissolved within one month. But in this case, the tissue developed into a cancerous tumour,” Kunhi said.
The parents brought Aadhi to Lakeshore as the hospital in Dubai didn’t have the facility and experts to perform such a complicated surgery.
The Lakeshore management claimed it was the fifth such surgery successfully conducted in the world.
“The boy was in a very critical stage as 95% of the blood circulation was blocked by the tumour, which had affected the right two chambers of his heart. It had to be removed at the earliest,” said Kunhi.
Kunhi has performed 16,000 heart surgeries with a 99.6% success rate and is the first heart surgeon in India to introduce beating heart surgery and some other advanced techniques.
“The surgery was performed by applying deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA), a surgical technique that involves reduction of body temperature to 15°C,” the doctor explained.
“It was a narrow escape from death for the boy as the surgery had only a 50:50 success rate. His health condition has now improved very well, and he will be discharged within a few days.”
The boy’s parents said they were in extreme shock after the detection of the cancerous tumour in his heart. Though doctors in Dubai advised against travel, the parents took the risk.
“On the next day we flew down to Kochi and Aadhi was taken in an ambulance from the airport to the hospital (about 40km away),” said Jenny Merin Fabeer, his mother.
“Dr Kunhi readily agreed to perform the surgery on the Eid day without a second thought. Our son is in good condition now.”
The boy will have to undergo chemotherapy to check any growth of tumour in future.
