Surgeons at Fortis Malar Hospital have helped a 40-year-old woman with Eisenmenger’s Syndrome lead a near-normal life. Chennai-based V. Aparna was born with ventricular septal defect (a hole in the left ventricle of the heart), which was diagnosed when she was six months old. At that time, her parents were told that surgical correction of the defect was not possible.
Despite low immunity and other problems, Aparna managed to finish schooling. In due course, the untreated hole resulted in reversal of normal flow of blood.
In her heart, blood flows from right to left, a condition termed Eisenmenger’s Syndrome. It reduces oxygenation of blood, putting pressure on the lungs and damaging them.
Frequent hospitalisation
Aparna was hospitalised frequently and put on a lot of medication. “When she came to us five years ago, we changed her medication, which eliminated hospitalisation,” said senior consultant and interventional cardiologist B. Madan Mohan, who is treating her.
“The only option is a heart-lung transplant. But the family did not want a transplant as the quality of life would be poorer. They decided that Aparna’s condition be managed with medication,” he said.
Then, three years ago, she developed a tumour in the uterus. “She came with severe pain in abdomen, was suffering from urinary incontinence and had not been menstruating for four years,” recalled gynaecologist Nithyaa Ramamurthy. Aparna had developed fibroids over the years and had undergone treatment to reduce the size of fibroids. But it did not help her much. The only option was hysterectomy.
It was a high-risk procedure with as much as 90 per cent risk of the patient developing complications, doctors explained to her mother Padmini.
She was operated on March 25 and discharged a week later. Now she leads a near-normal life, Dr. Ramamurthy said.
