Lucknow: The battle against congenital heart diseases, which put the lives of over 75,000 newborns at risk each year in Uttar Pradesh, received a significant boost with the inauguration of the SGPGI Saloni Heart Foundation Centre, the state’s first facility, on Tuesday.
The collaborative centre began operations with 30 beds, a corresponding intensive care unit, and all necessary facilities, in the presence of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mrinalini Seth, founder and president of Saloni Heart Foundation USA, a California-based non-profit organisation.
The importance of the centre is underscored by the fact that nearly 2.4 lakh babies with congenital heart disease are born in India each year, with an estimated 48,000 (about 9,000 in UP alone) needing surgery to survive. However, due to a lack of resources, many lives are lost.
Prior to this centre in Lucknow, India had only 10 paediatric cardiac centres, performing 15,000 procedures annually, highlighting the dire situation. Consequently, about 68% of the 48,000 babies requiring surgery either die while waiting for their turn or from complications that arise during the waiting period. In contrast, 97% of children with congenital heart diseases survive in the US.
