According to the hospital, the woman’s heart had enlarged and one of the four chambers of the heart, the left atrium, was filled with blood clots

Vikram Hospital and Heart Centre has performed a high-risk heart surgery on a patient who was suffering from rheumatic heart disease for the past 20 years.

The surgery was done by a team of cardiac surgeons – Chief Cardiac Surgeon Dr. Nagendra Prakash, Dr. Upendra Shenoy and Dr. Narendra Nishanimath.

The doctors removed about 160 gms of blood clots from 35 year old Nirmala from Chamarajnagar.

Her heart valves were damaged due to the disease.

According to the hospital, the woman’s heart had enlarged and one of the four chambers of the heart, the left atrium, was filled with blood clots.

Two of her four heart valves were badly damaged and leaking. They were not permitting proper blood flow (mitral stenosis, tricuspid valve regurgitation). This had led to irregular heart rhythm and accumulation of fluid from the blood in the lungs.

“This was a potentially fatal condition with possible death due to stroke or heart failure. With the surgery, the diseased mitral valve was replaced with an artificial mechanical valve,” the surgery team said.

According to Dr. Nagendra Prakash, this is a high risk surgery with high mortality due to possible complications. Fortunately, she recovered within five days and now she is free from symptoms like chest pain, breathlessness, fatigue.

With the surgery, the patient has recovered completely and is fit to resume daily work and lead a normal life with a good life span, he adds.

However, surgeries like the one performed on the woman were expensive and the lower socio-economic group found it difficult to afford. But the surgery was affordable to Nirmala’s family with funding by charitable trusts and donations from philanthropists.