According to doctors, approximately seven out of every 1,000 newborns will be born with complex congenital diseases.

P.S. Seetharama Bhat, Professor and Senior Consultant in Cardiothoracic Surgery, these complicated heart operations are routine at Bengaluru's Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.

4 Ethiopian kids undergoes open heart surgery at Bengaluru's Jayadeva Hospital

Two of the four were born blue, one had a Double Outlet Right Ventricle, and the other had a large hole in their heart along with severe pulmonary hypertension.

According to institute director C.N. Manjunath, the Ethiopian children in east Africa had been waiting for years for a foreign surgical team to perform open heart surgery in Addis Ababa.

The parents claim that Ethiopia lacks pediatric cardiac surgeons who can perform complex congenital heart surgeries. He said one child was scheduled for surgery in Israel, but the family could not travel there due to COVID.

Seven of every 1,000 will be born with one of these complex congenital diseases, most frequently Tetralogy of Fallot, heart holes, or narrowing of the valves. Fever, a persistent cough, the common cold, pneumonia, slow growth, bluish discoloration of the skin and nails, and poor weight gain are the typical symptoms of heart holes. 

If they are not operated on, he claimed that most children with these diseases pass away before turning ten years old. 

These complicated heart operations are routine at Jayadeva, according to P.S. Seetharama Bhat, professor and senior consultant in cardiothoracic surgery at the facility which carried out the surgeries.

The four Ethiopian kids and their diagnosis

Kejan Haile, 6, of Angecha and Master Tibebesilasse Kassahun, 16, of Guleli had Tetralogy of Fallot.

Mezida Abdu, age 12, of Kolfe Keranio, had a Double Outlet Right Ventricle, which necessitated a challenging intraventricular tunnel operation.

The fourth child, 13-year-old Bilen Workineh of Burlew, needed surgery for a VSD and a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).