Abu Dhabi: An Indonesian household worker in Abu Dhabi had a hole in her heart that was successfully repaired without having to resort to an open-heart surgery.
The device closure procedure, undertaken at NMC Specialty Hospital, Abu Dhabi, enabled Nanik Harjo, 50, to return to her duties within a week, serving an Emirati family where she has been employed for more than three decades now.
“It was so happy when I learned about the rare procedure. Harjo’s story and her bond with the Emirati family are so heartwarming. I am happy to see our doctors, nurses and technicians continue in their pursuit of saving precious lives,” Michael Davis, chief executive officer at NMC Healthcare, told Gulf News.
Worsening symptoms
Harjo, who has been in the UAE for more than 30 years, had been seen her symptoms worsen over a month. “I was getting increasingly breathless, but I continued testing negative for COVID-19, the usual reason behind breathlessness these days. This was worrying, because it indicated that there was a serious issue,” Harjo said.
She visited NMC Specialty Hospital’s Urgent Care department on December 30, 2021, with a heart murmur and was diagnosed with a heart failure. She was closely examined by Dr Sanjay Rajdev, interventional cardiologist at the hospital, and asthma and other lung and chest problems were ruled out. “The breathlessness was attributed to a heart failure as a result of a defect that was shunting a lot of blood from the left to the right side of her heart,” Dr Rajdev said.
Diagnosis and care
“The patient had a condition known as the ruptured sinus of Valsalva RSOV, which means there was a hole near the aortic valve, resulting in an abnormal connection between the two heart chambers. The usual treatment is to close the hole using open-heart surgery. In my close to two decades of experience as a cardiac anaesthesiologist, this was the first time that I assisted a device closure,” said Dr Madhava Kakani, head of the department and cardiac anaesthesia consultant at the hospital.
If left untreated, the condition held high risk of mortality for Harjo, the doctors said, in addition to severe acute chest pain and breathlessness. Since she had been reluctant to undergo an open-heart surgery, the medical care team had to explore other options.
“We did the echo cardiograph, confirmed the diagnosis and proceeded with timely closure of the defect via a special device - a small, 12-millimetre nitinol plug positioned across the defect. In her case, she was found to be having an 8.5-millimetre defect, with the leaking of blood from the aorta into the right ventricular outflow, directly below the pulmonary valve,” Dr Rajdev said.
Grateful family
The procedure on Harjo was hailed by the Emirati family she works with, with her current sponsor visibly moved when he heard about the successful medical procedure. He added that Harjo had helped raise him and he considered her like a parent. Unable to bring over any of Harjo’s own children from Indonesia before her procedure due to travel restrictions, he himself tended to her before and after the procedure.
“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 members had smiles on their faces, while my sponsor had tears of joy in his eyes. UAE is my second home. It has given me a new life and allowed me to adopt another family,” Harjo said.
Harjo was discharged the day after the procedure, with immediate improvement in her symptoms. She was also able to resume work within a week’s time.
