While jogging, a little girl suddenly became critically ill due to a rare disease, with only 12 cases in the world.

While jogging, the 11-year-old girl complained of fatigue and had to be resuscitated to get her heartbeat back. The doctor concluded that she had acute myocarditis, cardiogenic shock, and a rare coronary abnormality, which has only been recorded in 12 children in the world medical literature.

An 11-year-old girl suffered from fulminant myocarditis, cardiogenic shock with rare coronary artery abnormalities. Currently, the world's medical literature only records 12 children with the condition - Photo: Provided by the doctor

On October 17, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Deputy Director of the City Children's Hospital (HCMC) - said that he had just saved the life of patient TTA (11 years old, living in An Giang ) with acute myocarditis, cardiogenic shock with rare coronary artery abnormalities.

Medical history showed that 1 hour before admission, A. was jogging about 300m on the weekend morning and complained of fatigue. When relatives took him home, A. became more tired, lethargic, pale, feverish, and was hospitalized at a local medical facility.

Here, baby A. was found to be lethargic, with pale lips, SpO2 84%, pulse undetectable, blood pressure unmeasurable, and was treated with endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, antibiotics...

During the resuscitation process, baby A. had cardiac arrest once, and after about 1 minute of resuscitation, the heartbeat returned. The results of the previous paraclinical tests showed that A. had acute pulmonary edema, dilated heart, ventricular hypokinesia, moderate mitral valve regurgitation, and a thoracoabdominal ultrasound showed little pericardial and pleural fluid.

After 4 days of treatment without clinical improvement, baby A. was transferred to the City Children's Hospital. Here, the patient was lethargic, had pale lips, cool limbs..., and was diagnosed with acute myocarditis, cardiogenic shock, pneumonia, and pulmonary edema.

The patient continued to be on a ventilator, using vasopressors, antibiotics, adjusting acid-base electrolytes, diuretics, and consulting with the team to consider the indication for ECMO.

After nearly 2 weeks of treatment, baby A. gradually improved, stopped vasopressors, pneumonia improved, endotracheal tube was removed and mechanical ventilation was not introduced. However, the baby continued to have difficulty breathing, cyanosis, acute pulmonary edema, so he was reintubated and put on mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and diuretics.

Echocardiography, CTA and DSA of the patient's coronary arteries showed an abnormal left coronary artery from the right coronary sinus and running in the aortic wall, so surgery to reconstruct and repair the left coronary artery was indicated.

After surgery, the patient gradually recovered, the drainage tubes were removed, the ventilator was successfully removed, the child was alert, did not need vasopressors, and was breathing fresh air.

Coronary artery malformations are very dangerous, risk of sudden death in children and athletes.

Doctor Tien added that patient A. is a rare case in pediatric cardiology. Coronary artery malformation originating abnormally from the contralateral sinus of the aorta is a rare abnormality (about 0.1% of the population).

This particularly unusual form of the left coronary artery originating from the right coronary sinus runs within the aortic wall, which is dangerous because of the risk of sudden cardiac death in children and athletes.

World medical literature records sporadic cases, to date 12 cases in children have been reported in medical literature.

Note that if children suddenly complain of fatigue when exerting themselves or fainting, parents should take their children to a medical facility with a cardiology specialist to check for heart problems and heart blood vessels, to detect early abnormalities of the heart blood vessels, thereby receiving timely intervention and treatment.

SPRING PLUM

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dang-chay-bo-be-gai-dot-ngot-nguy-kich-do-mac-benh-hiem-gap-the-gioi-chi-12-ca-20251017155630143.htm