Understanding Congenital Heart Disease: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments

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Congenital heart defects refer to defects in the heart that children are born with. These are one of the most common congenital defects globally. In India too, 200,000+ children are born with a congenital heart defect (CHD). These are the numbers of the cases that are recorded – there maybe many more which go undiagnosed and hence untreated. Only 25 per cent of the children diagnosed with a congenital heart defect are able to get the required treatment. A lack of awareness and access to resources are the biggest challenges in children getting timely treatment. Organisations like Genesis Foundation, a congenital heart foundation India has been taking steps to both build awareness and provide financial treatment to those who cannot afford the cost of treatment. The treatment for CHD is expensive and families that do not earn enough to meet their daily needs have to depend on funds they receive as a congenital heart disease donation to support the treatment. Symptoms of Congenital Heart
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Little Nafisa overcomes Pulmonary Stenosis through CSR support for healthcare

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This is the story of a sweet little Angel named Nafisa Khatun. Her parents Rashida and Manirul hail from Basirhat, West Bengal but they shifted to Pune, Maharashtra for better living conditions for their family. With a hard-earned income of Rs 9,000 per month Manirul worked as a construction labourer.

Due to the COVID -19 pandemic last year, Manirul and his family went back to their hometown in West Bengal. Big sisters, Tanisha and Anisha were excited that their mom was going to have another baby. Rashida delivered her daughter at a district hospital in Basirhat on August 16, 2020. In this distraught time of Covid, Nafisa brought immense joy to the family and she looked like the perfect little baby girl. Post-discharge from the district hospital, Rashida and Manirul brought their daughter home.

In the later part of the year when the COVID-19 situation felt better, Manirul and his family decided to leave for Pune and resume work as transportation were also running. 

As Nafisa was growing up, she would eagerly observe every object in front of her and even started briefly holding a toy in one of her hands. Rashida, Manirul and their elder daughters Tanisha and Anisha were overwhelmed with the happiness that little Nafisa brought to their life.

Upon reaching Pune in November 2020, Nafisa started having frequent bouts of fever. The fever kept getting on and off for almost a couple of weeks. Initially her parents thought that fevers are common due to change of location, and it isn’t serious. But it had been two weeks that Nafisa was suffering with high fever and the relief was always temporary. As a mom, Rashida was getting anxious about her daughter’s health each day. 

Later, Manirul and Rashida consulted a nearby local doctor who prescribed some medicines to their daughter. The doctor asked to come after a week for check-up and they returned back home. Nafisa was on medication and her mom was taking complete care of her. She was slowly getting stable but in December 2020, she started having few episodes of vomiting and this worried both Manirul and Rashida who then immediately took their daughter to the consulting doctor for check-up. The doctor examined the little girl and found a “murmur” in her heart. 

Nafisa was suspected to have a heart defect and may require a heart surgery to cure the same, so her parents were asked to visit Jupiter Lifeline Hospital in Pune for medical evaluation. This came as an utter shock to her parents as they couldn’t believe their ears. Rashida and Manirul went back home devastated with this knowsledge of what was keeping their daughter unwell. 

They came to Jupiter Hospital, Pune in February 2021 via public transport. At the hospital an Echo was done.  Sadly, their sweet little Nafisa was diagnosed with Pulmonary Stenosis. “Who could have ever guessed? We had never heard of anything like this called a Congenital Heart Defect” said Rashida, to the doctor. 

Pulmonary Stenosis is when there is a narrowing of the Pulmonary Valve (stenosis), and she required to undergo a procedure called a Balloon Pulmonary Valvotomy, where the valve is opened with the help of a balloon. Her parents were explained about the complete process in detail. The parents needed financial help for the surgery and through CSR support for healthcare provided to Genesis Foundation, the surgery was carried out on 24th February 2021. Nafisa’s procedure went successful, and she was released a day after the procedure. 

She is stable and doing well now and will be going for her first follow-up in last week of April 2021. Nafisa is now a happy, smiling six month old and Manirul and Rashida thanks their stars to have been blessed with this amazingly strong and determined little girl. They can’t wait to watch her grow and believe she is bound to do great things in life. 

They express their gratitude and are thankful to all the people who worked towards saving their daughter’s life. You can also provide CSR support for healthcare by visiting https://www.genesis-foundation.net/Give.aspx 

-Contributed by Arti Barwa

Location: Gurugram, Haryana, India

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