![[image] logo](/common/graphics/common/spacer.gif){kind=small}
Press Office
The publicity site of Sky News
for journalists and PRs
![[text] RSS](/common/graphics/common/rss_orange.gif){kind=small}
Sky News Exclusive Report: Death Row drugs used in operation to ‘re-plumb’ a woman’s heart
Issued: October 30, 2009
[TX: From 0600, Saturday 31 October 2009]
STRICT EMBARGO: 0001, Saturday 31st October 2009 An exclusive Sky News report to be aired on Saturday 31 October reveals that a team of British surgeons has carried out a dramatic operation to "re-plumb" a 28 year-old woman's heart which was connected back-to-front. This condition has never been seen before in an adult patient.
STRICT EMBARGO: 0001, Saturday 31st October 2009
Sky News Exclusive Report: Death Row drugs used in operation to ‘re-plumb’ a woman’s heart
- Please note that any quotes used from the interview must credit
Sky News in full -
Sky News’ Health Correspondent Thomas Moore was present at the operation where doctors used 'death-row' drugs to stop the heart, then drained all the blood from her body and packed her head in ice keeping her head at around 17C. This allowed them only 30 minutes to re-connect her major blood vessels before she would begin to suffer brain damage.
Doctors were only alerted to Anita Gurung's extremely rare condition when she suffered a devastating stroke in September 2008. When she woke up Anita was unable to move her arms or legs. It took six months of treatment and physiotherapy at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading before she was able to go home. Through that hard work Anita has been able to regain her ability to walk and use her limbs. However doctors were puzzled as to why an apparently healthy 28 year-old would suddenly be rendered a quadriplegic.
Professor Stephen Westaby led a team of doctors and radiographers who began hunting for the cause of the stoke to prevent it happening again. To their surprise they discovered the patient's main blood vessels into her heart were connected the wrong way around. That meant she could suffer another stroke at any time.
Anita's husband Buddha told Sky News, "When she's recovering and seeing that she's coming through, and knowing that maybe it's going to happen again, it's always frightening. Living like that it's always terrifying."
The main vein that drains deoxygenated blood from the top half of Anita's body (superior vena cava) was connected to the left collecting chamber of the heart (left atrium) instead of the right. Blood was being pumped out directly to the rest of her body, including her brain, without going via the lungs first. This meant that her blood was not properly oxygenated, and - more seriously - it was not going through the usual filtering processes that take place around the lungs.
Debris and air bubbles in the blood coming back from the top half of her body were being pumped up to her brain. This 'dirty' blood meant that since birth she has been at constant risk of a clot or blockage in the blood vessels of her brain. The doctors were amazed she had survived so long with such a condition, and without it being noticed.
The operation was performed at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Heart surgeon Professor Stephen Westaby, told Sky News, "I'd never seen this problem in 30 years of cardiac surgery, and neither had any of my cardiological colleagues. It's a very dangerous situation where blood from the body can get directly into the brain without any sort of filter - the filter is usually the lungs. So she was destined for an early, devastating stoke."
The operation was a complete success and Anita, who is originally from Nepal and part of a Gurkha family, is now free from the danger of another major and life-threatening stroke.
- Ends -
For further information please contact:
Charlotte Reed
Publicist, Sky News
Charlotte.reed@bskyb.com
07920 027829
Notes to editors:
The operation took place on 22nd September 2009. Anita was 28 when she had the stroke, she is now 29.
Since its launch in 1989, Sky News has established itself as a formidable and innovative force in the world of news broadcasting. It now provides news to around 145 million people in 36 countries in Europe alone, with distribution across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Valued for fairness, balance and journalistic objectivity by both viewers and regulators, the award-winning channel has also earned a reputation for the speed of its 24-hour coverage and flexibility in reporting live news – first.
In addition to its status as one of Europe's leading 24 hour news channels, skynews.com is one of the fastest growing websites on the continent. It is also available on mobile phones, on desktops, on UK rail platforms and Virgin Atlantic flights.
In March 2009 Sky News Radio became the sole provider of national and international news to all commercial stations in the UK – reaching around 31 million listeners in total – when it took over the contract to supply IRN stations, in addition to its existing clients.
Sky News won a Golden Nypmh at the 2009 Monte Carlo Television Festival for Best 24 Hour News Programme for its coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks. Sky News was also named Best News Service at the Broadcast Digital Awards 2009 and Skynews.com won the Association of Online Publishers award for website of the year, 2008.
Copyright ©2010 BSkyB