Health news from around the world
Baby born with heart outside her chest in stable condition after corrective surgery
A SOUTH African baby born with her heart outside of her chest remained in a stable condition yesterday after undergoing the first of a series of corrective surgical procedures 11 days ago.
Baby Ashleigh Louw, who has a medical condition called Pentalogy of Cantrell, was born earlier this month with her heart outside of her chest cavity, and only a thin film of skin protecting it from the outside world.
Last week, a team of 20 Johannesburg-based surgeons managed to close the child’s internal abdominal wall with a patch and put her protruding heart back into her chest cavity.
However, the specialists were unable to get the organ back into the correct position because of fears the procedure might have proved too much of an ordeal for the newborn to survive.
She remains in the intensive care unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto where doctors are reviewing her condition every 24 hours.
The infant’s complex ailment also includes associated defects of the sternum, pericardium, diaphragm and abdominal wall, and structural abnormalities of the heart.
According to paediatric cardiologist Prof Antoinette Cilliers, the most pressing problem facing the infant now relates to her underdeveloped tricuspid valve, which is located on the right side of a healthy heart. Because doctors cannot replace the valve, they will have to re-channel the heart’s blood flow, a procedure that can only be performed when the child has recovered from the first operation.
Following the first procedure, the head of the ICU Prof Rudo Mathivha, said: “Her heart still has its abnormalities, but the baby is stable. She will have to have staged operations. . . Her heart will be corrected, just not today.”
The one-in-a-million condition has captured the imagination of the South African public, prompting health minister Aaron Motsoaledi to visit the child last week. Medical literature indicates she has a 50 per cent chance of survival. Suggestions the hospital did not have the capacity to deal with such a complex case were dismissed by newly appointed chief executive Johanna More last week. “We are not short of skills, capacity nor infrastructure,” she told journalists during the health minister’s visit.
Westlife show broke the rules
A PERFORMANCE by Westlife on TV show The X Factorbroke broadcasting rules because it could have triggered seizures, television watchdog Ofcom has ruled.
The chart-topping band appeared on the Saturday night programme in October with flashing laser effects which could have affected epilepsy sufferers and should have carried a warning.
Channel TV, which was meant to ensure the programme complied with broadcasting guidelines, admitted that the show did not meet the required standards.
However, it said it had tightened up procedures since then.
In two short segments of the show, flashing was five times greater than the guidance given by regulator Ofcom.