Email
Print
ShareMumbai: When Sunderlal Lodha, a 66-year-old resident of Pali, Rajasthan, had a heart attack, he did not realise it. Cardiologists in Rajasthan told him his ECG was abnormal, but Lodha refused to believe them. And that is what brought him to Mumbai.
In Mumbai, Lodha, underwent another ECG and a 2D Echo cardiography at a top hospital, which revealed a mass in the right side of his heart. Lodha still refused to believe it, and opted for a Trans-Esophageal Echo-cardiography (TEE) test at another hospital.
Doctors diagnosed it as angiosarcoma of the heart, a rare condition referring to a cancerous tumour of the heart. Patients with angiosarcoma do not survive for more than six to 12 months, say cardiologists.
However, Lodha, who was a suspicious of doctors, asked for an angiography, as a final test to verify the cardiologists' diagnosis.
It was finally the angiography that led to the correct diagnosis and eventually, right treatment: a four hour long surgery that saved Lodha's life. "He was suffering from coronary cavernal fistula -- caused because of a fistula in the right coronary artery to the right atrium (one of the chambers of the heart)," explained Dr Kaushal Pandey, cardio thoracic and vascular surgeon, Lilavati Hospital, who performed an open heart surgery on Lodha on November 2.
The mass had probably grown over a period of six to 12 months to the size of a golf ball. "It was amazing that the patient was alive," said Dr Pandey, adding that the condition was so rare that there is little or no mention of it in text books of cardiac surgery.
"I have done over 12,000 open heart surgeries in Mumbai since 1991, and this only the second such case I have seen. The first case was performed by me and has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Annals of Thoracic Surgery," said Dr Pandey.
Had this fistula not been removed, it could have grown bigger and eventually ruptured and led to his death, said Dr Pandey. The surgery involved four bypasses, and the removal of the golf-ball sized mass.
Lodha was discharged in five days, and will go on to lead a completely normal life.
