Parents of 2-year-old baby share harrowing medical ordeal

The parents of a two-year-old boy have come forward to share their story, in hopes of preventing what happened to them from happening to others.

Preeti Ahuja and Iven Chetty are the proud parents of three boys. Their youngest child, Saihil (1), was born in 2021 with congenital heart defects.

“When Saihil was born we found out that he had holes in his heart, and because of that he was breathing fast and not feeding properly,” Ahuja recalled.

She continued by stating that at this stage they had full medical cover for an open heart surgery, to close the holes, if the surgery was performed in South Africa.

“At that stage, we were looking at every option to help our child, that was when we came across a video by Max Super Specialty Hospital in New Delhi, India,” she elaborated. In this YouTube video, Dr Neeraj Awasthy a pediatric cardiologist for the hospital in New Delhi spoke about a new technique he successfully performed on a Kenyan child to close a large hole in the child’s heart called a Catheter Device Closure instead of performing an open heart surgery.

“We immediately contacted Dr Awasthy about this procedure,” explained Preeti. They then did video conferencing to confirm Saihil’s possibility to undergo the less invasive procedure. According to Ahuja, Awasthy then emailed through a letter to apply for a Visa to go to India.

The family packed their bags and, in the peak of Covid-19, travelled to New Delhi to see Awasthy.

“We consulted Dr Awasthy numerous times at the hospital and he told us ‘Saihil is an ideal candidate for a Catheter Device Closure’. We believed him and decided to go through with the procedure on March 21, 2022,” elaborated Ahuja, at this time Saihil was five-months-old and weighed only 5kg.

Nothing could have prepared the family for what happened next.

“During the procedure, Dr Awasthy came to us and told us the horrifying news. He had burst one of Saihil’s heart chambers [the right atrium] and he subsequently went into cardiac arrest,” shared Ahuja, “Baby Saihil lost a lot of blood during the incident and they had to use defibrillators to revive him.”

She continued that during the time between Saihil going into cardiac arrest and his revival, his brain did not get enough oxygen, and a significant part of his brain got permanently damaged.

“Saihil had multiple organ failures, was on a ventilator for several days, and after seizures and a stroke was paralysed on the left side of his body,” she recalled.

“I remember the doctor didn’t have high hopes of Saihil waking up, he mentioned that only when Saihil’s eyes show signs of movement, then only will they go forward and perform an open heart surgery to rectify what they had done,” Chetty disclosed.

Saihil underwent open heart surgery the following day.

“…once again my baby became the target of another negligence case under the supervision of the doctors at Max,” added Ahuja.

According to Ahuja, the patch was placed slantingly in the right ventricle of the heart rather than directly on the huge hole, causing obliteration of the right ventricle apex, making it part of the left ventricle. This resulted in a smaller right ventricle.

“Dr Awasthy concealed this life-threatening situation from us, we only found out about it after three months from our cardiologist here in South Africa,” she pointed out that this was hard news to hear as there was a higher risk of going in and repairing the damage months after the mistake, rather than the doctor realising it while Saihil was on the table, correcting it there and then.

“We were told that Saihil has until the age of five till he will need to undergo a heart transplant or other lifesaving procedures,” added Ahuja.

Saihil will turn two in September and has fortunately regained some use of his left side, although he still has a long way to go in terms of physical and mental rehabilitation.

“We are seeing a physiotherapist to help him with his movement, and I try and play educational videos for him during the day,” explained Ahuja.

“We submitted a court case against Dr Awasthy and so far the only response we have received is that he has been expelled from Max hospital after Dr Gurpreet Singh, the vice president of Max, conducted a disciplinary hearing and he [Awasthy] was found guilty,” added Chetty.

According to Ahuja, who has done quite a bit of research on the Indian Guidelines and Standard Treatment Protocols, the Catheter Device Closure being performed on a five-month-old infant was not in accordance with these guidelines.

“It is unfortunate that he can still go on to practice medicine. It would not surprise me if the other infants he operated on are also struggling with the repercussions of his actions,” voiced Chetty, “we as parents put our trust in doctors to have our, and our children’s, best interest at heart. If he had just said, ‘no the procedure is too risky’, or even stipulated the dangers to us we would have never given consent to this nightmare.”

Attempts to contact Awasthy and Max Super Specialty Hospital have been made, but no feedback has been received at the time of publication. Once feedback is received an update will follow.