Hearty news for patients with acute cardiac trouble

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Mention aortic aneurysm and the challenging heart condition was considered a silent killer, till recently. Two Mumbaikars, who were diagnosed with it and saved from the brink of medical emergencies, signify the progress the city's heartcare hospitals have made.
    Aortic aneurysm occurs when the artery wall of the aorta, the largest artery in the body, weakens and could be lifethreatening as it could rupture causing internal bleeding.
WHEN AN ANEURYSM BURST....
    When Deonar resident Kamlakar Vaity (62) started complaining of severe back pain on December 5, his family didn't have the foggiest idea that something was wrong with his heart. Vaitya's heart had an aneurysm that had, like a stretched balloon, suddenly burst and was leaking blood.
    "Around 70% of such patients never make it to hospital,'' said Dr Hemant Deshmukh, who heads KEM Hospital's interventional radiology department. But Vaity not only made it to Sion Hospital but was subsequently operated by Dr Deshmukh at KEM Hospital.
    What makes Vaity's recovery remarkable is the bleakness associated with aneurysms, mainly seen among senior citizens and smokers. It isn't easily diagnosed in India because of the lack of awareness. The relatively new alternative of 'stenting'—or surgery and stents in combination—is now making aneurysm more manageable, said Dr Deshmukh.
    Vaity's blood pressure had dropped to dangerous levels and his kidney's function was impaired. For 20 days, Sion
doctors kept him afloat before transferring him to KEM. There, doctors operated him in a minimally-invasive manner—inserting a catherer and reaching the ruptured aorta to place the special cylindrical stent measuring a few mm—on December 26.
    The treatment cost is high. Though Vaity was operated in KEM, a public hospital, the family had to pay Rs 3.5 lakh for the stent alone. Vaidya's wife Sarika, who worked as a welder, was happy that family and friends had pitched in.
A HYBRID PROCEDURE
    Mulund resident B G Rao (72) was a singer but is barely able to speak today. He is recuperating from a complicated surgery at Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Bandra.
    When Rao suffered lower back pain in 2005, he was advised an MRI. "Doctors detected an aneurysm,'' said son S G Rao. They couldn't have guessed that Rao wo-uld set a medical record of sorts—becoming one of first Mumbaikars to undergo a hybrid heart procedure—a bypass and stenting at one go, after he was diagnosed with a triple aortic aneurysm.
    The family first ignored the aneurysm, "as he had no symptoms''. Only when he began to lose his voice that family panicked. Doctors even discouraged an operation at his age.
    It was on meeting cardiothoracic surgeon Ramakant Panda, the PM's doctor, in December that they decided to go ahead with the surgery. Explaining that the aneurysm was so located that only one procedure wouldn't have been possible, Dr Sudhir Vaishnav of AHI said they did a bypass and stenting.

Kamlakar Vaity

B G Rao