Summary:
"I could not enjoy a normal childhood. After the first valve replacement surgery, my condition improved, but the problems returned two years ago," said Deshmukh, months after the multiple surgeries from which he recovered well and is now convalescing in his home but performing his normal routine. In involved increasing his narrowed aortic heart valve by an additional 6 mm valve area to enlarge it and fit in a bigger 23-mm valve (against the earlier 17 mm Deshmukh was born with) though there was hardly space left for it, besides the second time surgery to replace the faulty heart valve, he added.The patient has recovered well and was discharged in the third week of November. He is now leading a normal healthy and active life, said Panda.Around a 100 days post-surgery, he confidently added that Deshmukh is not likely to require any such operation in the future.It is the general practice in such complex cases to allow adequate time to pass before bringing them into the public domain. "His heart valve was very small, only 17 mm, though ideally for his age and body size, it should be at least 21 mm, so enlarging the size of the heart valve was crucial to save him as it affected his heart functioning and the ballooning out of the aorta posed additional risk of sudden rupture," Panda explained to IANS.Panda termed it as the longest-ever operation he had ever performed, and one of the rarest and riskiest procedures in his medical career of more than 20,000 heart surgeries, besides (in Deshmukh's case) involving a combination of some of the most complex surgeries done simultaneously on any patient.The Manouguian technique itself was a huge challenge for the medical team..