Heart disease in young women and children

• In a rare procedure, her doctors closed the hole without surgery

Abu Dhabi: Nanik Harjo, a 50-year-old, married, Indonesian lady working as a personal staff with one of the Abu Dhabi based Emirati families for over three decades, presented with worsening breathlessness of over a month on Dec 30th, 2021, at the urgent care section of the NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi.

“I was going around doing the daily chores but then on an increasing basis, I had started getting breathless. I was worried on account of something serious as I continued testing Covid negative – the usual suspect these days.”, said Nanik.

Nanik reported at the urgent care area of NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi, where the attending physician heard the murmurs from her heart and transferred her to Cardiology where confirmation of heart failure was done via echocardiography.

On close examination, after ruling out asthma and other lung and chest problems, she was investigated by Dr Sanjay Rajdev, Consultant Interventional Cardiology at NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi. “Breathless was attributed to her heart failure which was due to a heart-defect shunting lot of blood from the left side to right side. She underwent a CT scan and was found to be having signs and symptoms of heart failure.”, said Dr Rajdev.

Dr Madhava Kakani, HOD and Consultant Cardiac Anesthesia, NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain, who confirmed the diagnosis via the Echocardiogram said, “The patient had a condition known as the ruptured sinus of Valsalva RSOV - there is a hole near the aortic valve resulting in an abnormal connection between 2 chambers. The usual treatment is to close the hole using open-heart surgery. In my close to two decades of experience as a cardiac Anesthesiologist, this was the first time that I assisted a device closure. I am very happy for the patient that her problem has been solved without undergoing open-heart surgery.”

Dr Rajdev explained, “It is medical urgency causing severe acute chest pain with dyspnea – shortness of breath, or, in extreme cases, cardiac arrest. The condition carries with it a high rate of mortality if left untreated.”

Nanik had raised many children in her Emirati family where she works, and her current sponsor is one among many children who were raised by her. Visibly moved at the end of the successfully done procedure, the Emirati sponsor (name withheld) exclaimed to the medical team the importance of Nanik in his life as he considered her just next to his mother. He tried for her children to come from Indonesia but failed to owe to the pandemic and looked after her all by himself as her son.

Nanik’s treatment options included either open heart surgery which is performed by the cardiothoracic surgeons or in selected cases by an interventional cardiologist. Since the patient was extremely reluctant for an open-heart surgical procedure, she was subjected to further testing with the help of trans-oesophagal echocardiography for detailed assessment regarding the feasibility of non-surgical closure.

Nanik, admitting with a lot of happiness over her reluctance to open-heart surgery, said, “I do not know much about medical science, yet I was sure I did not want the open-heart surgery. When I came out of the procedure room, the medical team had smiles on their face while my local Emirati sponsor had tears of joy. UAE is my second home, gifting me a new life and a benevolent family forever.”

Explaining the procedure, Dr Rajdev said, “We did the echo, confirmed the diagnosis and proceeded with timely closure of the defect via a special device - a small 12 mm nitinol plug positioned across the defect. In her case, she was found to be having an 8.5 mm defect with the leaking of blood from the aorta into the right ventricular outflow directly below the pulmonary valve.”

After successfully getting the two-hour procedure done on Jan 6th, she was discharged the next day with immediate improvement in her symptoms and wellbeing.

Expressing his happiness over the niche procedure done on Nanik, Michael Davis, CEO NMC Healthcare, said, “It fills my heart with tremendous contentment when I learned about the rare procedure. Nanik’s story and her bond with the Emirati family are so heartwarming. I am happy to see our doctors, nurses and technicians continuing in their pursuit of saving precious lives.”

The hospital claimed, the procedure is rare as there is no description of such a procedure using device closure in the MENA region. Hence there are only a handful of people and limited hospitals where such expertise is available.   

She has joined her duties within a week’s time with no lifelong medications. 

About NMC Health

NMC is one of the leading private healthcare operators in the Gulf Cooperation Council ("GCC") with an international network of multi-specialty inpatient and outpatient clinics and hospitals, specialised maternity and fertility clinics, and long-term care homes across nineteen countries. NMC also ranks as one of the top two in-vitro fertilisation operators globally. The NMC Health Group is recognised as a leading provider of long-term medical care in the UAE through its subsidiary ProVita. NMC has a total capacity of 2,207 licensed beds across its network

NMC Health Plc was placed into administration by the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts of England and Wales on 9 April 2020 and Richard Fleming, Mark Firmin and Ben Cairns of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators. On 27 September 2020 a number of the entities of the NMC Healthcare Ltd were placed into administration under Abu Dhabi Global Market Regulations. Richard Fleming and Ben Cairns were appointed as Joint Administrators. For full information regarding these appointments please redirect to this web page: https://nmc.ae/

For more information:
Anurag Kashyap
VP Marketing and Corporate Communications
NMC Healthcare Ltd.
Email Anurag.Kashyap@nmc.ae 

© Press Release 2022