A four-month-old Pakistani baby boy got a fresh lease of life after undergoing heart surgery at a private hospital in Noida owing to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's efforts.
The father of the boy expressed his gratitude towards Swaraj for providing all help to procure the medical visa for treatment in India and urged her to further open doors for medical visas of other Pakistanis.
Rohaan's parents were unable to get an Indian medical visa for their child's treatment due to the strained bilateral relationship between the two countries.
According to a statement issued by the Jaypee Hospital hospital in Noida, Rohaan was suffering from "D- transportation of great arteries with abnormal origin of main arteries from opposite chambers with multiple VSD and severe pulmonary hypertension".
"He had a hole in his heart and the aorta, that is on the left side of the heart was coming from the right side and pulmonary arteries were coming from the left which was exactly opposite to the general structure of the body.
"Due to the multiple VSD, oxygen-less blood was flowing in his body and his body was turning blue. From the very first month Rohaan used to have heavy breathing and his weight was not increasing.
"He also suffered from pneumonia because of which his condition was more critical," Dr Rajesh Sharma, Director of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery Department at the hospital, said.
The infant was brought to India on July 12 and was operated on July 14 by a team of doctors led by Dr Sharma.
Doctors performed an arterial switch with VSD closure method on him which lasted for around five hours.
Rohaan was shifted to the ICU and was kept on a ventilator. To take him off the ventilator, another procedure was done after which he was put on a high calorie and high protein diet.
He has recovered well and is now fit to go back to his country.
"Doctors at Jaypee Hospital have given us new hope to live. After Rohaan was diagnosed with the disease, we got very troubled. Unfortunately, we do not have such high-level specialty hospitals in Pakistan and thus we had to come to India for Rohaan's treatment.
"Special heartfelt thanks to Sushma Swaraj because of whom we could procure a visa for our child's successful treatment," Rohaan's father Kanwal Sadiq said.
