Video: Dubai-based doctor saves Sri Lankan expat with rare surgery

Dubai - 54-year-old Mohammed Aslam Shibly was suffering from immense chest pain that made him unable to walk.

In an operation claimed to be performed for the first time in Dubai, a cardiac surgeon conducted four bypass surgeries and a left ventricular repair on a 54-year-old Sri Lankan expat, while his heart kept beating.  
The left ventricle is one of four chambers of the heart that is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to tissues in all parts of the body.
Mohammed Aslam Shibly, an engineering professional with Dnata, was suffering from immense chest pain that made him unable to walk. He feared that his end was near. But the five-hour rare surgery gave him a new lease of life.
"I wasn't even able to walk properly for 10 steps. I would get tired and experienced a lot of pain in my right hand," Shibly said. His wife added, "I have two children, 18 and 13 years old. As a wife I don't need to explain how I felt. I got really scared. My husband called me and my son and explained what we need to do if he's not alive. But thanks to God, everything went fine."

Dr. Varma, a consultant cardio thoracic surgeon at NMC Specialty Hospital, who performed the operation on September 24, 2017, said, "In the heart scan, we found that one part of his heart wall is weak. That is called aneurysm. The left ventricular wall was weak. We decided to perform four bypass surgeries on beating heart. We also repaired the aneurysm on beating heart by a technique called Left Ventricular Plication. We did two procedures on the same patient on beating heart." 
Dr Varma claimed to be the only surgeon in Dubai to conduct beating heart surgeries.   
"We do all our bypass cases on beating heart. We don't use the cardiopulmonary bypass pump for any patient. All our cases are off pump, on beating heart. This is the latest form of bypass surgery which is being practised in the leading hospitals around the world. By doing this, we are avoiding all the complications of cardiopulmonary bypass pump. This is more physiological. The coronary arteries are present on the surface of the heart. So we immobilise the area where bypass is required with a stabiliser. After stitching the prosthetic graft, we remove the stabiliser. The heart keeps beating while we do the operation on the surface."
Dr. Varma says 99 per cent of his heart patients are either diabetic or smokers or they have cholesterol derangement.