Cost of Congenital Heart Surgery in India

Approximately 5,500 USD.

For TGA with VSD and LVOT obstruction, these kids essentially have pulmonary stenosis with a VSD, and timing depends on the kid's oxygen saturation — they will need a Rastelli or a Nikaidoh operation, both requiring an implant, and the intent is to give the biggest implant possible since a smaller implant means an earlier return for a change. If saturations are above 75% and the kid is growing and doing well, they can wait and have surgery at around one year of age; if saturations are less than 75% with significant failure to thrive, they should come for surgery at any age or weight. On late presenters: we are also a resource-limited country — four or five surgeons doing this work for half of India — and face the same problem of kids coming late every day. My suggestion is education programmes, including pulse oximeter screening at birth, 1 month, and 6 months, referring for an echo early if abnormal. Late-presenting PDAs and cyanotic conditions apart from TGA are usually still operable, even if at slightly higher risk, but VSD shunt lesions can become inoperable if too late — however, even when a kid looks clinically inoperable, we always offer a cardiac catheterisation to confirm, since a significant proportion will still turn out to be operable, if high risk. And even an inoperable VSD child, with good, appropriately timed medical management (diuretics, pulmonary vasodilators), can still survive 25–35 years, whereas without that care they will die much earlier.

Costs vary by procedure complexity. A straightforward atrial septal defect closure, one of the more accessible procedures, costs approximately 5,500 US dollars when performed electively at the recommended age of 3 to 4 years.

No. For urgent conditions such as transposition of the great arteries, TAPVR, coarctation of the aorta, or truncus arteriosus, delaying treatment to raise funds can mean a child becomes sicker, more complex to treat, or in some cases inoperable by the time funds are available.

Discuss the case with the treating team early. A doctor's note and case discussion can clarify urgency and options even before travel is arranged.

It allows the treating team to advise on how much time a family realistically has and what can be done locally in the meantime. In cases seen through Jivo's network, delays caused by the time needed to raise funds have, in practice, allowed some children's conditions to worsen before treatment could begin.