New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) In a room at Apollo Hospital in the capital, 82-year-old Kamal Vadera prods the doctor about why her condition could not be diagnosed earlier. She has been operated upon for the 11th time in her life and is feeling much better.
The retired school teacher's surgery was a complex one, involving heart valve replacement. Usually survival is rare at this age after such a procedure. Vadera also has a history of hypothyroidism, hypertension and breast cancer, among others.
Vadera, a fitness freak and a social worker, was warned by doctors of the risk to her life. But the octogenarian didn't hesitate to go under the knife for her condition, medically known as aortic stenosis.
"Doctors said I could die. It was tough for my age, but I never wanted to be bed-ridden and be dependent on anybody," Vadera, a resident of Kalkaji in south Delhi, told IANS.
"I had to decide what was to happen with my life," she added with a smile.
"I knew I have to die. But I wanted to fight my battle before giving up," Vadera said, as she held the hand of her daughter, who sat by her side during the routine check-up two months after the surgery.
Vadera sits up and continues prodding the doctor as to why her disease could not be diagnosed in different hospitals.
When blood leaves the heart, it flows through the aortic valve into the main blood-carrying vessel called aorta. Aorta carries the blood out of the heart. In the state of stenosis, the aortic valve does not open fully, decreasing the blood flow from the heart.
Doctors say sometimes the condition is confused as a problem of the lung rather than heart. Also, when Vadera suffered breathlessness, she was in Mumbai, a city where she did not have a family doctor who knew her medical history.
She also shuttled between hospitals in Delhi before finally coming to Apollo where her problem was diagnosed.
"In such cases, the valve pumping blood fails to open properly. Replacing it with a healthy valve is not difficult, but at the age of Kamal Vadera, it could have been complex," B.N. Das, senior consultant of cardiothoracic surgery at Apollo Hospital, told IANS.
It was after a series of bouts of breathlessness that Vadera came to know about her cardiac ailment.
"We studied the details of her 10 surgeries that included a hip replacement surgery, two breast cancer surgeries and a gall bladder surgery, among others. She was counselled and asked if she would like to go for this surgery," Das explained.
Vadera, who had the unflinching support of her children during the tough phase, gathered the courage to come to the doctor and give a final go ahead.
The operation cost around Rs.2 lakh.
"We had to replace her aortic valve with an artificial valve in a surgical procedure. We knew she would be safe," said Das.
After two months of the surgery, Vadera goes out for evening walks, invites women folk from her colony to play a game of cards with her and even helps her children.