86-yr-old woman gets new lease of life

Dr Pankaj Goel, director, cardio-thoracic and vascular surgery department, Amandeep Medicity, in partnership with Ujala Cygnus, has used the latest technology to save the life of an 86-year-old woman suffering from a fatal heart disease.

The woman was checked for prolonged hoarseness of voice. On examining her, it was found to have a life threatening problem — aortic aneurysms in both chest and abdomen. In this condition, the aorta, the main pipe that carries blood to all parts of our body, becomes weak and swells like a balloon. The main risk of this condition is sudden rupture, which can cause sudden death. The treatment of this condition is only through surgery. The swollen part of the pipe has to be changed.

Open surgery is a big operation in which the chest or abdomen is opened. It takes many hours, requires a lot of blood and a two-week stay in a hospital.

At Amandeep Medicity, Dr Goel and his team, including Dr Gurpreet Gill (cardiac anesthetist), is doing this procedure using the latest endovascular technique. This technique does not require operation and is like putting a heart stent. There is no blood requirement and the patient can walk the next day. Besides, a patient has to stay in hospital for just two days. They recently performed this procedure on the 86-yr-old woman.

The family was very thankful to Dr Goel and his team for saving her life. She had been refused surgery in several hospitals. Dr Goel added that they were using small-cut technique for all heart surgeries.

Dr Goel said, “This was a challenging case as the patient was 86-year-old and had aneurysms in both chest and abdominal aorta. Conventional open surgery would have been highly risky for her. With the help of the latest endovascular technique, we were able to treat her safely without a major incision.”

From just a five-bedded hospital, the hospital has grown to more than 750 operational beds, and a team of more than 170 distinguished surgeons and physicians. The Amandeep Group has six branches, with two located in Amritsar and one each in Pathankot, Ferozepur, Srinagar and Tarn Taran.