Chennai: Experiencing fever for nearly three days after under- going an angioplasty and sten- ting procedure seemed abnor mal to 76-year-old businessman Mohamed Salim and his family On Wednesday, two months after an open-heart surgery, a doctor at Apollo Hospitals on OMR an- nounced that he has recovered well after they removed the stent, which was infected.

In the first week of May, doc- tors told Salim that the stent pla- ced in his coronary artery was infected. “This is extremely ra- re, but it can lead to severe comp lications and life-threatening situations,” said the hospital’s consultant cardiac surgeon, Dr that there have been very few MM Yusuf.

Doctors said they didn’t know the reason for the infec- tion because he did not undergo the procedure at their hospital. “Theoretically, there are three possible ways,” consultant car- diologist Dr. Madhuprabudas said. “The stent could have been contaminated, or he could have acquired it during his stay in the hospital. Or the patient, who has diabetes, may have acquired it after discharge,” he said: Scans revealed an infection in the stent, which had eroded the coronary artery and posed a risk of rupture, extending to the aorta wall.

A review of global medical literature confirmed tients taken up for surgery un- der these conditions, and even then, mortality risk has been more than 60%. “If the vessel ruptures, the situation would be extremely critical. We also saw an infection in the valve,” Dr. Yu- suf said. “We removed the infec- ted stent and cavity, cleared out the valve, and did a coronary ar- tery bypass graft surgery in a fo- ur-hour procedure,” he said. Ten days after the surgery on May 23, the patient was discharged from the hospital.
On Wednesday, Salim, who walked to the dias, smiled at the flashing cameras and said, “I didn’t think I would make it. I’m happy I am alive,” he said.