Clip heart

In an India first, MitraClips used to fix two separate leaking valves

- Puja Awasthi

Till October last year, Deewan Singh Dardi, 87, was managing a call centre with 5,000 employees. And then, he was not up to it anymore.

Dardi had a chequered medical history: bypass surgeries and operations on the gall bladder and prostrate, and one for hernia plus morbid obesity. His latest health concern was massive water retention that had started from his legs. In a decade, it had moved through his body and even affected his face and eyes. Everyday activities were a challenge and even his speech was slurred.

After consulting two doctors, Dardi's daughter Priya Monga took him to Dr Praveen Chandra, chairman, interventional and structural heart cardiology, Heart Institute, Medanta Gurugram. Chandra and his team (including Dr Manish Bansal and Dr Nagendra Chauhan) suspected that the swelling was a result of congestive heart failure. An echocardiogram (an ultrasound test that checks the structure and function of the heart) revealed that two of his valves were leaking.

But first, some understanding of the heart's valves.

There are four types of heart valves-tricuspid valve (located between the right atrium and the right ventricle), pulmonary valve (located between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery), mitral valve (located between the left atrium and the left ventricle) and aortic valve (the final one encountered by the oxygenated blood as it leaves the heart).