Trinidad restaurateur Carveann David undergoes rare heart procedure in India

Carveann David, a thirty five year old restaurateur from Trinidad and Tobago found sleeping on their stomach has become an impossible luxury.

For David, in the last nine years, lying face down would worsen the fluid build-up caused by advanced right-sided heart failure and a severely leaking tricuspid valve. Swelling, fluid leakage and breathlessness had become a way of life, to which doctors back home said there was very little they could do. Some even suggested a heart-and-lung transplant.

“It started when I was 27. First came breathlessness, then swelling and fluid build-up. Doctors implanted a pacemaker. But over the last three years, my condition kept worsening. When they said there was no hope, our lives turned upside down,” David told TOI.


The restaurateur went online with the determination to find alternatives.

“India’ kept appearing in her searches, eventually leading her to Delhi-NCR. The journey took three days — via Toronto and Zurich. “Even during the flight, the blankets would get drenched from the fluid leaking from her belly and legs,” said her mother, Natalie Paul.

In India, David initially found only a heart transplant as an option but then discovered the ‘pivot extend system’, a permanent transcatheter implant for such cases. There have been only 40 such procedures performed globally, which makes her case the first in Delhi-NCR and first in India.

The device, costing around $15,000, with an import duty of $4,000, was imported from South Korea after the Central Licensing Authority approved it within five days. The whole procedure cost Rs 2 lakh.

Dr (Col) Manjinder Singh Sandhu, principal director of cardiology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute Gurgaon had conducted the implantation procedure.

“She had end-stage right-sided heart failure with very limited treatment options. After detailed consultations with the inventor of ‘pivot extend system’, we decided to proceed. The procedure significantly reduced the valve leakage,” Dr Sandhu said.

Dr Junehong Kim, the device’s inventor, professor at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, arrived in India to observe the procedure.

David received the implant on July 24 following a procedure of pacemaker replacement on July 22. The valve leakage had reduced from torrential to moderate in the follow-up scans and she was discharged within two days.

“Before anything else, I slept on my belly after nine years. It may sound small, but for me, it meant everything,” David said. She now wants to spread awareness about India’s healthcare.