A life saving vacation

Jun 09, 2013 News

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– Sylvina Francis tells of undergoing a novel procedure

By Sharmain Grainger
Although medical breakthroughs might be viewed as a regular occurrence in the developed world, I think that it can be safely deduced that such knowledge might take a while to trickledown to developing parts of the world such as Guyana.
For instance, it wasn’t too long ago that a few hospitals in the great United States of America embraced an advanced way to undertake crucial heart surgeries. Over the years, open-heart surgery has been viewed as the standard procedure to correct a number of heart defects the world over. Quite a few have even been done right here at the Caribbean Heart Institute, which is situated in the confines of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

And while a number of aged patients may wish to have operations to correct heart defects in hopes of prolonging their lives, it is often considered high-risk for them to undergo open-heart surgery. But with the advancement of medical technology, open-heart surgery as the only option for a patient is now a thing of the past. Well, at least at hospitals such as the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, Long Island, New York.
I have never been there, but it was just last week that I learnt how doctors from this facility were able to perform, what I would like to call an extraordinary procedure, to save the life of one of our citizens.
At the age of 89, it would have been highly unlikely that doctors anywhere in the world would have been willing to undertake an emergency open-heart surgery on Sylvina Francis, when it was found that her aortic valve was defective and needed changing in order for her to live. But as fate would have it she was on vacation in the United States and the doctor assigned to attend to her was versed in the ways of a non-invasive heart surgery technique.
It all happened around March of last year when Mrs Francis of 67 La Retraite, West Bank Demerara, decided that it was time to go on a vacation to one of her daughters residing in the United States. She had done this on numerous occasions.
Recounting how it all occurred during a recent interview, Mrs Francis, who is now 90 years old, said that she remembers making a “rich” soup for her daughter’s family. She consumed two bowls of the meal herself and later had a copious serving of some tasty liver stew she had also prepared.
“I sit down and eat till my belly was full…the food was so good,” she recalled as a grin formed on her face.
However, she said, a short while after that a rather strange feeling overcame her. She couldn’t remember ever feeling that way before. However Mrs Francis decided to head straight to the toilet, but was only able to pass some urine. Before long she was flat on the floor in an unconscious state.
She regained consciousness to the voices of paramedics who were by then preparing to take her to the hospital for medical care. She would learn that her teenage grandson who was at home with her discovered that she had “blacked-out” on the bathroom floor and immediately called for an ambulance.
By the time she arrived at the hospital, breathing was a most difficult task for Mrs Francis. “I was panting for breath,” she recalled. Several examinations by emergency medical experts revealed that Mrs Francis had a heart valve that was not functioning well. As such it was recommended that it be replaced.
Although lying helpless in a bed, it was no less than shocking when she learnt that an operation would have to be conducted on her to fix the problem. You see, she had lived her entire life, prior to that day, without ever gracing a medical institution for any medical procedure. She revealed that even the eight children that she gave birth to were delivered at home.
“I was saying to myself ‘Lord is what is this; they carrying me theatre to do what?’”
And as doctors closely monitored and waited for her breathing to normalise, Mrs Francis recalled seeing one doctor shaking his head as if to suggest she wouldn’t make it.
But her time had not yet come to depart this earth, as not only did she undergo a successful surgery, but was shocked to find out later that she barely had any scars to show after.
“I still can’t believe they went inside me and fix my heart valve and ain’t cut me open to do it,” exclaimed Mrs Francis. She is confident that it was God who allowed her to be in the United States at the time to be able to get the crucial operation done.
She disclosed that following the surgery even the surgeon had returned to see her and as tears streamed down his face informed that “you are a blessed woman.” Even though he, together with other medical experts, had undertaken the relatively new operation, he was not confident that she would have survived given her age.
The operation saw the surgeon replacing the damaged aortic valve by going through the femoral vessel commonly called the groin. Simply by making an incision in the groin, a surgeon can implant a prosthetic valve which is placed in a stent (mesh tube), that has an identical shape to the real valve, using a catheter. A catheter is a thin, flexible tube that can be inserted into a body cavity, duct or vessel. The movement of the catheter is guided by a monitor.
According to medical experts, this procedure is considered not only an important development, but the ultimate solution for operating on elderly patients who may not be able to undergo conventional open-heart surgery.
However, there have only been a few selective patients that have undergone the operation, as medical experts are still monitoring its efficacy, in comparison to the still very applicable open-heart surgery, with a view of further refining it.
However, Mrs Francis will continue to “give God the glory and the praise” because she was among the few who were able to undergo the procedure which has helped to save her life.  She is slated to return to the hospital in August for a routine check-up and disclosed recently “people does want know if I really did have a surgery, because I am still the same…nothing ain’t change.”
According to the woman while the days immediately following the operation were painful she has since not had a single pain to suggest that anything is amiss.
“God is keeping me every day and there is no way that He will allow me to die before my time,” asserted the jovial grandmother, whose portrait will soon be hanging on the wall of the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre as one of its “miracle” cases.

 

 

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