Dr Balwant Singh’s Hospital Inc recently performed its first ever pericardiectomy on a 27-year-old patient who had been given 48 hours to live while hospitalised at another institution.
At a press conference yesterday, Dr Madhu Singh said the patient, Fizul Ghani, who hails from Berbice, suffered from constrictive pericarditis and his condition was extremely poor when he was admitted.
Constrictive pericarditis is long-term (chronic) inflammation of the sac-like covering of the heart (the pericardium) with thickening, scarring, and muscle tightening (contracture).
Ghani was unable to lie down while taking oxygen and had to do so in a sitting position. The other hospital, she said, administered heart medication, “which made his condition very complicated but we were determined to try our best to save his life.”