HYDERABAD: A 31-year-old footballer from Uganda, who was suffering a severe heart disease, got a new lease of life at a private hospital in the city where a L-VAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) was successfully implanted in him.Yashoda Hospital in Secunderabad performed a complex procedure, JARVIK 2000, on the patient who was diagnosed with coronary artery disease along with left ventricular dysfunction.
The player, Okwara Joseph, had first reported chest pain in April 2021 during a football match in Uganda. After that he was hospitalised a number of times in his native country with complaints of breathlessness, swelling of lower limbs and abdominal distension. He was finally diagnosed with ischemic cardiomyopathy after which he came to India for further treatment in November. He was admitted on December 13 as his condition worsened.
According to Dr V Rajasekhar, a Senior Cardiologist at Yashoda Hospital, their team evaluated the patient thoroughly and planned for a left ventricular assist device as a destination therapy. “Through a very complex procedure, advanced LVAD device JARVIK 2000 SERIES, which serves as a destination therapy to the patients with advanced stage heart failure, was implanted. This one-of-a-kind procedure was successfully done on 24th December 2021. It took the nearly one month to recover, and he was discharged on 28th January 2022.”