AORTIC ANEURYSM ON HONEYMOON

My name is Deepak. I am 32 years old, married and we have an 11 month old son. I got married to Kavita on 26 Jan 1998. We were honeymooning in the beautiful foothills of Himalayas in India. It was 2nd Feb 1998 and we were in a hurry to reach back to the hotel room from the long drive in the rain, as a friend was to join us for dinner along with his wife and kids. We reached almost in time as our friend too had just reached. It was cold evening and we had left the room heater on, and we entered the warm and cozy but a some-what dehydrated room. We ordered soup and dinner and suddenly I started feeling this strange fullness/tightness in my chest.

I thought of going out in the fresh air but with in moments the fullness increased and I started having difficulty in breathing. My friend got alarmed and asked me to sit down and relax, but I told him it was all right and that it would pass. Suddenly there was an excruciating pain in the middle of my chest and a vague tearing/ ripping sensation as in the noise created in ripping a paper. The breathing became easier almost immediately after. However every heart beat was painful. In my case there was no sign of nausea, sweating, dizziness, fainting etc. The hotel doctor gave me a pill to put under my tongue and referred me to local hospital, which diagnosed me a case of gastroenteritis.

After a very uneasy night, we checked out of the hotel the first thing in the morning and I drove for nearly 4 hours to reach Chandigarh, my home. Without telling any one, I went to a private radiologist, who noticed the dissection and asked me to further get a C.T scan done. Despite me asking him, he said there was no cause for worry and it was all minor. By the time the C.T scan report came it was dark and we were asked to immediately rush to a hospital.

We reached the PGI, a top medical institute of the region, who after doing echocardiography, declared that the case was beyond them and they could do nothing as they did not have the requisite facilities. According to them I was just to lie and await death. My parents decided to risk reaching me to Delhi, which was another 5 hours drive.

The moment I reached the Apollo Hospital in Delhi, I was immediately operated upon for dissection and my aortic valve too was replaced. After a stay of 24 days I was discharged but was readmitted for draining out some fluid in the lungs. Life suddenly had taken an about turn. I was dependent for every thing. I had lost 14 kgs of weight and felt very weak.

I did not have a health insurance, hence all the money for expenditure on surgery and hospital stay was arranged from our entire savings and that of my parents and some borrowed from friends. The amount spent was more than an average Indian makes in 10 years.

I returned to my business which I had started 3 years before this problem arrived, after 5 months and that too for only a few hours daily. We had defaulted on our loan repayments. An employee had fraudulently vanished with a large payment collected from our customers. It was like starting all over again. It has now taken 3 years to some how reduce liabilities. Bank loan too is almost paid. But with the recession I think we would have to close soon.

The government in India operates under tremendous population and poverty pressures. Health care and support systems are virtually non existent. But for some major hospitals, most of them find themselves short on either a doctors panel or equipments. To imagine that one of the premier medical center of north India refused my case as they were not sure of the expertise available

It's like starting afresh. I am well qualified and have a post graduate diploma in marketing management besides a 5 year work experience with the top appliance company, a subsidiary of the U.S giant G.E as an asst marketing manager. My wife is a qualified teacher with a master's degree. We are trying to find a suitable job for ourselves in the U.S, but nothing has materialized so far. We shall certainly appreciate any help that could be extended to us to help begin a new life. Any comments and suggestion would be welcome. Deepak Sharma.