From being dependent on a ventilator to breathing normally on her own within a week, a 45-year-old woman has made a recovery at Gandhi Hospital, Secunderabad, after being admitted in a critical condition with a pregnancy-related heart disorder.
The patient, Leelavathi Kiran Singh was admitted to the hospital on August 27 after she collapsed at a diagnostics centre. She was critical and had to be put on a ventilator.
She had a history of diabetes during pregnancy, high blood pressure and an underactive thyroid. Doctors found that she had peripartum cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes weak around the time of childbirth. She also had severe metabolic acidosis, a condition in which the blood becomes excessively acidic when the body is unable to maintain its normal chemical balance.
Doctors performed an emergency C-section to deliver the baby. Following the surgery, she continued to require ventilator support and medicines to maintain her blood pressure and support the weakened heart.
An initial heart scan showed that her heart was pumping only 34% of the blood it normally should. Doctors also found that the left side of the heart was not contracting properly. She was treated with medicines to support her heart and blood pressure.
As her condition stabilised, doctors started medicines to manage heart failure and support the heart. By August 31, tests showed that the excessive acidity in her blood had returned to normal. A repeat heart scan also showed that her heart’s pumping ability had improved to 53%.
She was gradually weaned off the ventilator and was subsequently able to breathe normally without any respiratory support.
