BENGALURU: A 40-day-old baby boy, battling

has been brought from

to Bengaluru on Friday, via

.

A private ambulance fitted with ventilator ferried

, the baby with heart ailments, in a span of 4 hours and 20 minutes covering a distance of 360 km. The vehicle had departed Mangaluru at 12 noon and reached Bengaluru's Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular science and research at 4.20pm.

Saiful suffers from

(TAPVC), a defect in the veins leading from the lungs to the heart. "He also has pneumonia and is currently in ICU on ventilator. Baby needs open heart surgery, but it can not done untill pneumonia is treated," said Dr C N Manjunath, director of the hospital.

Haneef Balanja, a private ambulance driver was praised for his unique gesture for ferrying the sick baby free of cost. Once he reached the hospital in Bengaluru, he was felicitated by the people. As the news of ambulance ferrying a sick baby between two cities went viral on social media, throughout the journey public paved way for ambulance.