NSW: Doctors to operate on East Timorese baby next week

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2006
NSW: Doctors to operate on East Timorese baby next week

SYDNEY, April 13 AAP - Sydney doctors will operate on an East Timorese baby next week
to fix a hole in her heart.

Two-month-old Maria Soares will undergo a four-hour operation on Thursday at the Sydney
Children's Hospital in Randwick in a last-ditch bid to save her life.

The hospital's director of clinical operations, Michael Brydon says the operation will
be very risky because of Maria's weight of just 1.9kg.

The hospital normally conducted about 100 ventricular septal defect operations per
year, but only about 10 operations were considered as risky as this, he said.

Tests have revealed the hole in Maria's heart is pumping too much blood into her lungs.

If she were to get a chest infection before the operation, she would die.

"You need to get in there (and operate) and correct this before she gets into serious
trouble," Dr Brydon told AAP today.

"Operating on a baby this size is risky."

The baby's health will be touch and go for about two days after the operation, and
she will be ventilated by a breathing machine, Dr Brydon said.

After about three or four days, doctors should know if the little girl will pull through.

Maria, who arrived in Australia yesterday, would have died if she had stayed with her
family in East Timor, he said.

AAP ae/ved/sco/nf

KEYWORD: SOARES DAYLEAD

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.