Viagra Gives New Lease Of Life To 4-Month-Old Baby With Heart Trouble

ViagraPopular anti-impotency drug Viagra saved the life of a 4-month-old baby girl Tanisha, who was born to Subrata and Dipa Saha of Kolkata.

The doctors at Chennai’s Malar Hospital used Viagra to lessen baby’s high blood pressure level during a prolonged operation.

When Tanisha was born, she was suffering from Cyanotic Congenital heart defect, a condition where the heart is on the right side of chest.

Moreover, Tanisha’s right lung was not developed properly.

The parents were distressed when their two-month-old baby kept on crying excessively, and often turned blue.

The baby also had recurring bouts of breathing trouble and had difficulty in feeding.

Initially, Tanisha’s parents took her to NRS Medical College and Hospital and then to Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences.

Kalpana Sabui, Tanisha's aunt, said, “When we got in touch with Dr. KR Balakrishnan, director of Cardiac Sciences of Malar Hospital, a Fortis healthcare division in Chennai, he asked us to visit Chennai for her treatment.”

Dr. Balakrishnan said, “She had cyanotica congenital heart defect, which affects only one in a lakh. Her heart was on the right side with a hole in it coupled with an ineffective and underdeveloped right lung.”

The doctor said that Viagra/ Sildenfril had been used to reduce the BP level in the baby’s right lung, which was touching 120 MG.

In a normal child it is 20 MG, he added.

"Viagra, used in the form of Silbenfril, was applied orally to reduce blood pressure in the lungs during the operation, Balakrishnan, who performed seventh such surgery,” he said.

Tanisha suffered four respiratory attacks while travelling from Kolkata to Chennai on April 3.

The high risk, complicated, four-hour surgical operation took place on April 7, 2009.

After that, Tanisha was kept in a ‘ventilator’ for 40 days for observation under the supervision of the hospital nurses.

The surgery cost Rs 4 lakhs. Out of this, Rs 1.5 lakhs was donated by the doctors group who operated on her.