A 33-year-old woman with a twin pregnancy and a heart failure underwent a critical surgery at a city hospital that saved her as well as the babies.
The woman gave birth to the twins a few weeks later.
Doctors at Medica Superspecialty Hospital said a baloon mitral valvuloplasty was performed on the woman to insert a baloon and widen the mitral valve so that blood flow becomes normal.
Dilip Kumar, an interventional cardiologist who perfomed the procedure on the woman, said the valvuloplasty became a critical procedure in this case because three lives were at risk. “There was an emotional aspect associated with the procedure.
The health of two babies and the mother was at risk,” he said.
Kumar said the woman had rheumatic heart disease with mitral valve stenosis.
According to him, the conditions meant that the valves of the woman’s heart was damaged and there was a critical narrowing of the mitral
valve.
“To make matters more complex she had started showing signs of heart failure. She was experiencing shortness of breath and was on oxygen support,” said Kumar, director of cardiac cath lab services at Medica.
The woman was already in the third trimester of her pregnancy — between six and nine months.
“Medical management is an option to treat such a situation. If that fails, the other option is to open the valve,” Kumar said.
The woman was first admitted to a hospital in Siliguri, where medical management was attempted but the doctors were not successful.
“She had also developed pulmonary edema. It was in such a state that a baloon mitral valvuloplasty was done. Once the mitral valve opened up, blood flow became normal,” said Kumar.
The procedure was conducted at Medica Superspecialty Hospital in October. The woman gave birth to twin babies in November at a hospital in Chhattisgarh, said
Kumar.
Rabin Chakraborty, senior consultant interventional cardiologist at Medica, said the procedure done on the woman was very difficult.
“There was a possibility of the disease getting more complicated. It was not possible to do an open-heart surgery in such a situation,” said Chakraborty, who is also senior vice-chairman, Medica Superspciality Hospital.