One of the most glaring myths about heart issues is that they only affect adults, but the truth is that many children in India are born each year with congenital heart disease. Someone who has no idea what this medical phrase means might not be able to understand how it will affect their child.
Congenital heart disease, to put it simply, is a birth condition that interferes with the baby's heart's normal functioning. They essentially manifest as structural flaws in the heart and blood arteries. Although congenital heart disease is the most prevalent type of birth abnormality, there is no known prevention or cure for it. However, it can most definitely be treated with surgical and/or interventional techniques. In India, paediatric cardiac therapy is still in its infancy. Congenital heart disease cases have increased in India as a result of a severe lack of awareness and inadequate medical infrastructure. Misperceptions about this terminal condition may then affect the patient's ongoing care.
Let's learn some crucial information regarding Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)
Children's heart abnormalities are around 60 times more common than children's cancer. Simple congenital heart defects include "holes" between the heart's chambers, whereas more serious ones include the complete loss of one or more chambers or valves. Such flaws can be identified before conception, after birth, or even in childhood.
With open heart surgery, many newborns with serious cardiac condition can live for more than a year and return to nearly normal lives.
Congenital heart disease can strike without warning regardless of a child's race, age, or social class, although certain defects can be found through essential prenatal diagnostics. A congenital heart defect is not a death sentence, and the child is not in any way faulty or flawed because of it. Numerous CHD patients have had longer and healthier lives as a result of prompt diagnosis, surgical intervention, and routine follow-ups.
Invasive surgery will be necessary at least once in a person's lifetime for more than 50% of all newborns with congenital heart defects. Additionally, he or she might not be able to gain weight as quickly as other babies, so parents and other caregivers are expected to regularly follow-up with the child's paediatric cardiologist or heart surgeon.
Since more modern testing and treatment options have become available, survival rates that were extremely low in previous decades have dramatically increased.
