After his trips to leading hospitals in Tasmania, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa proved futile, he came to know about the Wockhardt Hospital in India from his brother Steven Ntasi.
Martin Butarama, 32, a conference interpreter from Rwanda, suffered from breathlessness, swelling on the face, limbs and abdomen for four years. Suffering from a rare heart problem which could not be diagnosed. He couldn’t climb over a few stairs at a time and was depressed.
After his trips to leading hospitals in Tasmania, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa proved futile, he came to know about the Wockhardt Hospital in India from his brother Steven Ntasi. Impressed, Butarama found out more about the hospital through the internet and was got in touch with cardio-thoracic and vascular surgeon Dr Ajay Chaughule.
Dr Chaughule found out that Butarama was suffering from an extremely rare valve defect — the Rheumatic Isolated Tricuspid Stenosis of the heart — which is so rare that there is no mention of it in any medical or heart journal.
The heart has four valves —mitral, aortic, pulmonary and tricuspid. In most cases, the mitral or aortic valves get affected, requiring the patient to undergo a valve repair or replacement procedure. It is very rare for the Tricuspid valve alone to get affected.
“In this case, his valve had a defect and he needed immediate surgery,” said Chaughule, who performed the four-hour complicated surgery in Mulund.
Butarama’s heart was affected by the rheumatic fever he had contacted at the age of eight. Doctors in Rwanda had treated him with penicillin injections from the age of nine to 15 years. In India, the penicillin injection is recommended till the age of 40.
“Due to the defect in the Tricuspid wall, his heart had formed a clot 6cm in size on the right atrium for which the blood flow was restricted,” said Chaughule. “Moreover, the thickness of the right atrium had increased from 3mm to 3cm, making the procedure risky.”
His liver had enlarged and his heart was inflamed and had got stuck to the surrounding tissue. Without surgery, he could have died. But now, Butarama can enjoy a healthy life.
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