The outpatient clinics department at Imam Al-Hujjah Hospital received a case of a woman in her 40s from Basra who was complaining of shortness of breath.
The patient had previously visited a clinic in another city where she was diagnosed with a 13-mm ventricular septal defect (VSD) and told that she must undergo open-heart surgery. This caused emotional distress for the lady as she considered traveling abroad for treatment.
However, she decided to visit Dr. Sami Saad, a renowned interventional cardiologist from Lebanon who works at Imam Al-Hujjah Hospital – Karbala. Through a transesophageal echocardiogram, Dr. Saad discovered that the patient doesn’t suffer from VSD and therefore doesn’t need open-heart surgery. This news brought about a drastic change in the woman’s psychological state and she left the hospital with a new sense of relief.
