60-year-old survives rare, severe heart seizure
Bengaluru: 60-year-old Nagendrappa S, did not dream that the day before his retirement would end up being the worst day of his life. He was an employee of KFCSC and had gone to office for the last time as he was retiring the next day. On his way home, it started raining heavily so he walked a bit briskly. As he climbed the stairs, Nagendrappa found himself in the grip of crushing chest pain. He was immediately rushed to Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur.
Shockingly Nagendrappa had suffered a ventricular rupture, a condition which has a survival rate of less than 5 per cent. Medically, myocardial rupture is a tearing of the wall of the ventricles or atria of the heart, of the interatrial or interventricular septum, or of the papillary muscles. It is most commonly seen as a serious sequel of an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and can also be caused by trauma. Due to medical intervention at the right time, Nagendrappa’s life got a second innings.
"When Nagendrappa came to the hospital we conducted an ECG and ECHO and found there was fluid collection around his heart and there was a clot on the arterial wall. We rushed him to the medical emergency centre," said Dr. Karthik Vasudevan, Consultant , Cardiology, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur.
He was then sent to the operating theatre where Dr. Mukundan Seshadri, Consultant Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Columbia Asia Referral Hospital, Yeshwanthpur, conducted an angiogram and found that Nagendrappa was suffering from a left ventricular rupture. "This condition is extremely dangerous as in most cases, patients collapse within minutes of the chest pain. Nagendrappa was extremely lucky that he was brought to the hospital on time. A clot on the arterial wall helped control the bleeding and gave us enough time to save him,” said Dr. Seshadri. "The rate of survival is very rare in such cases; there is less than 5% chance of survival," he concluded.
Recalls Nagendrappa, “The pain was so severe that I could not even move. I’ve never had any history of cardiac diseases or seizures. It was a shock to me and my family that I went through this ordeal." All’s well that ends well for Nagendrappa, who is out of danger now and on the road to recovery.