The patient is an 11-year-old girl, diagnosed with heart failure since she was seven months old, who is recovering satisfactorily from the intervention.
A Colombian doctor became the first woman in Latin America to make transplant an artificial heart to an 11-year-old patient.
This is Sara Mendoza Crespo, who is the head of of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Surgery of the Cardiovascular Foundation of Colombia (FCV), a private non-profit institution, located in Bucaramanga, department of Santander.
The device implanted in Sofía, an 11-year-old patient, is known as the HeartMate 3, which is a device that helps the heart pump blood and reverses the symptoms of heart failure and improves quality of life.
This implant is used when medications have no effect and there is no immediate possibility of a transplant.
How is the operation?
The intervention took place on June 13, according to Radio Nacional de Colombia, and lasted for seven hours.
The head of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Surgery explained that the HearMate 3 has a cable that goes through the abdominal wall and is connected to a minicomputer where its operation is monitored.
After the operation, Sofía is undergoing rehabilitation and progressing satisfactorily. In children, ventricular assist is used as a bridge to a later transplant in a couple of years.
The patient was diagnosed at seven months with viral myocarditis, an inflammation of the middle layer of the pa network of the heart that can lead to heart failure. This condition was treated with medication, which stopped having an effect last year, when he reported stomach pains and extreme fatigue.
“I didn’t know it was like that”
Mendoza affirms that she was unaware that she was the first doctor to perform this type of intervention in the region and says that he only found out when a colleague told him about it, and collect RCN.
“I really didn’t know it was like that, but a colleague told me: ‘Did you know that you are the first woman to place a device of this style in Latin America?’I am surprised, I don’t know expected and at no time did I do it thinking of being the first”, said the specialist in pediatric cardiovascular surgery.
👩⚕️Conoce a la Dra. Sara Mendoza, Cirujana Cardiovascular Pediátrica FCV.
Hace más de 5 años es parte de nuestra familia encargándose de todo lo relacionado con cirugía cardíaca,trasplante y colocación de asistencias en pediatría.
Es un orgullo que sea parte de la #FamiliaFCV. pic.twitter.com/C2o2eZDLLZ— fcvcolombia (@fcvcolombia) April 9, 2019
“We are trying to bridge the gap between men and women in the field because it is still a purely male specialty,” she added in an institutional video of the FVC.
For this doctor, the operation was “a great challenge,” because the device she used it is designed for adults. “You don’t know what you’re going to find and you have to determine if there’s room in the girl’s chest,” and where you’re going to put the device.
He stressed that a procedure of that type cannot be done without a multidisciplinary team. The private center where she works has already carried out 26 interventions of this type in adults and children.
