The Bougainvillea Clinic in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, is celebrating another historic occasion as the surgical team successfully performed its first open heart surgery on Tuesday, November 16th, 2021. This would also mark the first of its kind in the English speaking Eastern Caribbean, with the exclusion of Barbados and St Croix.
The patient, notably young in age, underwent replacement of her aortic valve, the main one of the heart’s four valves. The operation took a total of five hours to complete, and the patient was able to appropriately respond to commands shortly thereafter. She continues to recover well in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Bougainvillea clinic, according to the overseeing doctors.
Medical Director and owner of the Bougainvillea Clinic, Dr. Heskith Vanterpool, spoke to what he called a successful, but “tension-filled” process.
“The patient’s heart was put into cardiac arrest and the ECG line on the monitor went flat, as the patient’s heart was completely stopped for about 1½ hrs. The anesthetic team then turned off the ventilator function of the anesthetic machine, as it was no longer necessary for the patient to breathe during this 1½ hrs. During this period, the perfusionist did a masterful job of providing circulation and oxygen to the patient’s vital organs, by use of the heart-lung machine.
“During that period of cardiopulmonary arrest, the surgeons entered the heart, carefully removed the diseased aortic valve and inserted the appropriately sized artificial valve. After making sure the new valve was secured in place in an incision into the aorta, (the main artery leaving the heart), the heart was then restarted.
“This was the most tension-filled period of the operation for all those in the operating room,” Dr. Vanterpool added.
The Doctor explained that once the heartbeat was restored successfully, then came the combined effort between the anesthetic team and the perfusionist to stabilize the circulation, blood pressure and pulse. Once her circulation was stabilized, the patient was finally able to come off the heart-lung bypass machine.
Despite the complex nature of this surgery, Dr. Heskith Vanterpool and the surgeons have expressed that, not only did they not encounter any complications, but that the patient is said to be recovering well and should be discharged from the hospital in 5-7 days.
The ingenious effort was led by Dr. Rodger Miller, a cardio-thoracic surgeon resident in the BVI, and Dr. Sunil Stephenson, a senior cardiothoracic surgeon visiting from University Hospital in Jamaica. The anesthetic team was led by Dr. Craig Stoutt, a resident British Virgin Islander.
But the success of this pioneering surgery was contingent on a tremendous team effort of over 25 persons. The team expressed gratitude to National Health Insurance (NHI) which covered a significant part of the expense of this procedure and committed to moving cardiothoracic surgery in the BVI forward.
Dr. Vanterpool said that, had this procedure been performed overseas in US medical facilities, it could have ordinarily amounted to an estimated US$100-150,000 but he is thankful that it was performed locally at a fraction of that cost.
The tradition of pioneering work continues at the Bougainvillea Clinic with physicians and researchers working in fields related to cardiovascular disorders, kidney transplants and plastic and reconstructive surgery, among other general services.
Not only is the private hospital providing residents and the visiting population with medical services that previously required patients to travel overseas (often by air ambulance), but Medical Tourism is now a growing part of the business as the facility continues to attract interest from neighboring islands.
The Anguillian would like to extend hearty congratulations to the Bougainvillea family and wish them well in future endeavors.
(Adapted from 284 Media a subsidiary of BVI Cable TV)
