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Self connection gives infant a chance at life by Dick Peterson Public Relations Clinicians in Pediatric Cardiology have high hopes for a desperately sick premature newborn, just the kind of infant the telemedicine project of MUSC’s Children’s Heart Program of South Carolina was designed to care for.   The baby was flown to MUSC Monday, May 1, underwent a delicate, lifesaving heart operation in the Neonatal ICU on Wednesday and returned to Self Memorial Hospital in Greenwood on Friday with a far better chance of survival, said Andrew Atz, M.D.   Physicians declined to name the baby, because he has left the care of MUSC and his parents are no longer available to give permission. But that doesn’t lessen their satisfaction for having given him a boost on life.   Weighing less than two pounds and his twin brother having already died, the tiny preemie clung to life as MUSC pediatric cardiologist Girish Shirali, M.D., directed the performance of an echocardio-gram by a technologist at Self. The images, transmitted from Greenwood to Charleston, allowed Shirali to peer into those tiny heart chambers and discover a vessel in the heart that hadn’t closed at birth.    When a medication to close the vessel failed, the infant became a first for the Children’s Heart Program telemedicine connection with Self Memorial begun six months ago. He is the first premature baby to be transported from Greenwood to MUSC for surgical intervention following a telemedicine diagnosis, Shirali said.   Shirali said that the infant’s heart condition is related to his prematurity, and coupled with lung disease, he had little chance of survival. The lungs are the last organs to form, Shirali explained.   “For sure, he has a better chance now,” Atz said.   The telemedicine connection with Self Memorial Hospital extends MUSC pediatric cardiology to Greenwood—the other end of the state—where there is no full-time pediatric cardiologist available. And that excites Shirali and Atz.    By directing the echocardiogram technologist at Self from his location on the sixth floor of the MUSC Children’s Hospital or in his home, Shirali can diagnose as easily and accurately as if he were in the same room with his patient. The Children’s Heart Program offers 24-hour telemedicine services with Self Memorial Hospital. That way only the sickest children require transport to MUSC.   As for their tiny preemie, “That surgical ligation had to be done, and it had to be done here. We’re the only place in the state that can do it on a premature baby,” Atz said.