Media Release
Mangaluru, Sep 1: Adding yet another feather to the cap, doctors of KMC here have fought against the odds to give an 80 year old man from Oman a second lease to life.
A gentleman from Oman aged 80 years was suffering from kidney and cardiac disease for many years. He was advised for cardiac surgery in the Middle East. However, he was not fit for surgery due to his age, blood sugar and creatinine levels being very high. Since then he had been on dialysis as well for the past several years.
He was on medication for his heart condition, but recently he suffered angina (severe chest pain) and breathlessness on minimal physical exertion making his daily chores very difficult.
Over the course of time his family got in touch with Dr Rajesh Bhat U, interventional cardiologist at KMC Hospital in the city. Reviewing the angiogram Dr Bhat got to know that the patient had severe blocks impeding blood flow to heart. However the surgery could not be performed even in India due to the high risk involved in view of his age, high sugar and kidney condition and hence the only option for the patient was to undergo angioplasty with dialysis cover.
A team of expert doctors consisting of Dr Rajesh Bhat U - cardiologist, Dr Mayoor V Prabhu - nephrologist, Dr Pawan M R - physician/ diabetologist took over the case. Patient’s sugar was stabilized and dialysis was performed.
Dr Rajesh Bhat U performed a high risk angioplasty – implanting stents in all the 3 vessels. The patient was in the Hospital for a week and was then rehabilitated. The patient’s condition improved and was angina free. He has been discharged and is fit to travel back to his country.
“The case was challenging in view of age and co-morbid conditions requiring a collaborative approach considering the patient’s medical condition. The case was quite a challenge for clinical decision making and interventional skills due to age-related changes that occur in the body and also considering the patient has chronic kidney ailments. His arteries had become hard due to deposits of calcium and his arteries had to be dilated with utmost precision to implant the stent,” said Dr Rajesh Bhat U – cardiologist.
Dr Anand Venugopal, medical superintendent said, “It is a myth that angioplasty is not safe for older people. Angioplasty is a safe and effective procedure even for heart patients who are 80 and above provided it is done by an expert team of doctors like in the case of this gentleman. KMC Hospitals have the best pool of talent coupled with world class infrastructure to accommodate and treat various medical conditions. We are glad that we are receiving international referral patients and are able to successfully treat them as well.”