A 64-year-old woman in Bangalore got a new lease of life, her family and she calls it no less than a ‘miracle’. Hamsaveni, a homemaker was diagnosed with a twisted and tortuous aorta, which was leading to heart failure and was affecting the functioning of other organs like kidney and liver. Calling it a high-risk case after a failed aortic valve replacement surgery 10 years ago, several cardiologists from top hospitals in the city had refused to attempt any surgery to correct her genetically abnormal structure of the heart. Her congenital heart condition too was diagnosed during a regular health checkup at the age of 49.
Twisted aorta treatment
Due to delay in the treatment, her condition got worse. Speaking to Happiest Health, she says, “About four months ago, I was feeling suffocated while walking. When I went for a check-up, the doctors said the artificial valve has expired and I need to go through the surgery again. But there was severe calcium deposit on the artery too. So, the doctors said surgery would not be possible and they would sent me away with some medicines. But the medicines too were not helping.”
After hearing from several hospitals that there is nothing that they can do, she too had given up hope. But her children were quite persistent and insisted her to give one last chance. By the time they visited the experts at Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, her condition had further deteriorated. Her blood pressure and saturation levels had dropped dangerously low and sugar levels were high, which further complicated her condition, she says. “The doctors got me admitted to CCU. I was unconscious,” she says.
Aortic valve replacement surgery
Speaking about her case at a press conference, Dr Srinivas Prasad, senior consultant – Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Hospital, Bangalore, says, “We had a lot of sleepless nights. We reached out to doctors abroad too who also called it a red flag case and said they too would not attempt it. We took it as a challenge. We planned to conduct a high-risk hybrid TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) which involved a bypass surgery to broaden the blood vessels which had re-narrowed due to calcium deposits, and then a valve implantation.” But a few minutes before giving her anesthesia, she experienced a cardiac arrest. The team of doctors then changed their plans and took her immediately to the Cath lab where she underwent a valve replacement surgery. The procedure was successful, and the blood flow was restored, which helped improve the functions of other organs too. She got discharged on the tenth day of the surgery.
Now, it’s been three months, and she says she feels completely fine and normal. She had some difficulty walking and doing her daily chores for a while after surgery as her liver too had to recover. But a week after she got home, she started walking and her condition has been improving since, assures Dr Prasad.
Her daughter, Priyadarshini says smilingly, “It was a miracle. I got my mother back.”
