Little baby Miane is the first baby in South African medical history weighing less than 10 kilograms to receive invasive heart surgery.

On 22 June, Marlene Swart, baby Miane’s mom, was 33 weeks pregnant when her doctor discovered an irregularly fast heartbeat in her unborn baby. The doctor performed an emergency Caesarean section delivery to allow specialists to treat the abnormally premature infant.

Parents Marlene Swart and Schalk-Willem Burger had baby Miane transferred from Trichardt in Mpumalanga to the Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg when medication administered to slow the baby’s heartbeat failed to work timeously.

The hospital is renowned  for its specialised child heartcare (paediatric cardiology) department.

Doctors specialising in child healthcare (paediatric specialists) were thereafter unable to restore baby Miane’s heart rate to normal; prompting the team to make a difficult decision – do they perform a first-of-its-kind operation or do they wait for her to pick up weight?

Their hand was forced, as baby Miane’s condition showed no sign of stabilisation, and therefore doctors gave her little chance of surviving without invasive surgery.

Swart and Burger then agreed to the risky procedure; their baby Miane’s last hope which also had the potential to claim her life.

South Africa does not have any doctors who specialise in uneven heartbeats in children (a paediatric electro-physiologist), so the team called on the skill of specialist Dr J. Paul Saul in America to advise them through the delicate procedure.

Either way, the team of specialists in Sunninghill pulled through; successfully operating on a heart the size of a baby’s fist with instruments intended for adult hearts. The procedure lasted for two and a half hours, and was described by the doctor leading the team as being the most delicate operation ever performed in South Africa.

It has been confirmed that baby Miane’s little heart is now stable for the first time in what will hopefully be a long life.

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