DÉBORA GINA STEWART

HEART HISTORY

My story begins in 1973 and has not yet run its lengthy course. However, I can confidently say that although the situation scares me at times, I also find it fascinating and it greatly arouses my curiosity. Therefore, there are times when I wish to become ensconced in the whole subject of cardiology, especially the mitral valve. Despite not having access to all the pertinent information concerning my surgeries (as Brazilian doctors, especially the older ones, are not always willing to share everything they know with their patients) I will try to outline as much as I can.

I was an irritable child who tended to get worked up over the least little thing, flying off the handle frequently. When I was seven, I began to feel a lot of pain in my joints and to cough ceaselessly. At the time, doctors took this to be growing pains and a persistent flu. In those days, people did not have as much access to information on how to deal with this or how to recognise certain symptoms and, as was normal at the time, the situation was not taken so seriously. Then I got worse and went to see my paediatrician, who in turn recommended that my mother should take me to a cardiologist (Dr. Siloá Singer Bonescki). She had been a member of Professor Dr. Eurícledes Jesus Zerbini’s team at the Beneficiencia Portuguesa Hospital in São Paulo, so I was in good hands. She diagnosed my condition as rheumatic fever, already compromising my mitral valve. I remember that I spent the next two years in bed and being put on a salt free diet owing to the retention of liquid in my system. At this point, my heart was enlarged and I was on fifteen types of medicine, none of which had any positive effect. Therefore, I was sent to São Paulo to see Dr. Zerbini himself who was very straightforward. After running a battery of tests, he informed me that my chances of survival were minimal even with surgery, but without surgery I would be unlikely to last two months. Clinically, I was in a terrible state, weighing at age ten only 20kg (about 45 lb). I had surgery on 14 August, 1975 following a month in hospital. During surgery, a lesion was found on my tricuspid valve, which was promptly corrected. Nevertheless, setbacks were inevitable but with no permanent damage except an enlarged left atrium. My heart stopped beating twice and my kidneys failed for eighteen hours. I only came round in the ICU after two days and remained there for three more until I could be transferred to my room where I was carefully looked after for another month before being discharged. As mine was the first successful case of its kind in the country, people who didn’t even know me came to visit, and doctors from other teams came to have a look at the "Zerbini case" that was being talked about.

As time went by, the duramater valve that had saved my life for so many years began to show signs of failure, and on 15 April, 1980 I had surgery once again. This time, everything went well as the surgery had now become somewhat more routine. Once again, I went back to my normal life and my studies which had been seriously disrupted owing to all my health problems. I started to learn English and in 1983 when I began to correspond with pen pals from around the world through the Queen Fan Club, I met Robert from Scotland, who has now been my husband for nineteen years.

In 1995 following an echocardiogram, I was told by my cardiologist Dr. Ademar Moraes de Souza that I would have to have my valve replaced once again. We had planned to go to Scotland early in January, 1996, but that trip had to be cancelled. I was very upset about the whole thing as it interrupted other plans. I was trying to get pregnant with my first child, and this factor affected my choice of valve and I opted for a biological one (bovine pericardium). On 19 December, 1995 I was back in the operating theatre in the hands of Dr. Francisco Diniz Costa who headed the team at Santa Casa de Misericórdia hospital in Curitiba.

Well, I never got back to Scotland after that, but I did get pregnant and my daughter Bruna was delivered by C-section on 28 February, 1997. However, last week, the news that I have dreaded was given to me following my routine exams: mitral valve cusps slightly thickened with an opening of 2.99cm, although entirely normal and working well. I have been through this before and have formed an opinion: if you can’t beat your enemy, join him. Like everyone, I have my ups and downs and grab onto anything that helps me feel better or brings me hope. This is the advice I can give to anyone in a similar situation. Work with your doctor and nurses, especially while you’re in the ICU. They are not to blame for your condition and can be of great help in your recovery because they treat you well and really care about you. To them, you’re not just another statistic.

If you want to know more about me, go to http://profiles.yahoo.com/deboraginastewart1 or send an email to deboraginastewart1@yahoo.co.uk