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Heart Repair

Voice 1

Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Ruby Jones. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Today's Spotlight is on an exciting new medical treatment for a common heart problem. We tell the story of one man, and how this treatment changed his life.

Michael Charles is a leader of a Christian church in Perth, Western Australia. He first knew there was something wrong with his heart about ten years ago:

Voice 2

"One morning, just after I got up from my bed, I felt that I was going to fall down, unconscious. I was breathing heavily. It was as if I had just run around the house three times, but I had not. And there was a sharp pain in the back of my neck. The only way I could stop myself from losing consciousness was to sit still with my head down between my legs. It was about three hours before I could move around freely again.

I visited many doctors for tests to discover what my problem was. Finally, they told me that I was suffering from a disease called Atrial Fibrillation, or AF. This is an electrical problem in the upper chambers of the heart, the atria. It happens when different parts of the heart muscle start sending out irregular electrical impulses. This stops your heart from beating in the steady way it is designed to do.

I learnt to feel how my heart was beating, especially when it seemed out of control. I noticed when I started to breathe heavily, even if I had not done any physical work. Frequently I felt tired in the middle of the day. I often had to sit down, I worried about having a heart attack, and about being sick all the time and not able to work or do other things I wanted to. My work in the church was to help people who were sick or suffering and it was strange to need people to help me."

Voice 1

Many people with AF are not sick in any other way. But it can be caused by other health problems, such as hormones being out of balance, heart valves not working correctly, heart attacks, high blood pressure or rheumatic heart disease.

Voice 2

"When my local doctor discovered what my problem was, he gave me drugs called beta blockers. They slowed my heart so much that I felt tired. And then the AF started again because of bad side effects of the drugs. I worried that I would have to learn to live with AF permanently.

Then I went to Doctor Rukshen Weerasooriya. He is an expert on heart problems. I agreed to let him do a new kind of heart operation first developed by French doctors in 1994."

Voice 1

In this operation, doctors make a small cut at the top of the patient's leg. Then they use a long electrical wire called a catheter. They push the catheter into a blood vessel - one of the tubes that carry blood around the body. The catheter passes inside the blood vessel right up into the heart. Then the doctors use the catheter to burn the parts of the heart which are causing the electrical problem. The burnt parts restrict the flow of the electric currents that cause AF.

Voice 2

"At the hospital, I had a real experience of the wonders of modern medicine. Lying, half naked on a wheeled bed, I was pushed into what looked like the control room of a space ship. It was filled with screens, dials, cylinders and wires, and a team of men and women wearing gowns and masks. This was the operating room. The team began the process of sending me to sleep.

Dr Weerasooriya appeared from behind a big screen with a warm smile and asked how I was feeling. Someone else was busy moving a huge x-ray screen into position, near where I was lying. I could see a big picture on the screen of a spine, ribs and internal organs. They must have been mine!

That is the last thing I remember before waking about three hours later. Slowly I began to realise the operation was all over. I was pushed into a hospital ward to recover for the next two days."

Voice 1

Doctor Weerasooriya told Michael that he was sure the operation would cure him of AF. Michael needed to rest for two weeks, to let the wounds in his heart and leg heal. After that, it would take up to four months for his heart to recover completely. Then he would be able to live a normal life without drugs - and without AF.

Voice 2

"So far, this has been true. My energy level is back to normal. I have new energy when I walk anywhere - and I am getting used to my heart beating at a normal rate.

A great thing about this exciting new way of treating AF is that the heart doctor did not have to cut open my chest and then stop my heart beating, which is what they do in open heart surgery. This means that it has taken much less time for me to recover from my operation."

Voice 1

The success of this new way of treating AF is not the same for all people. It depends on the person's age and whether they have other health problems, especially ones to do with the heart and arteries. But it is a big improvement on all other types of treatment.

Since the catheter treatment was first used in France fifteen [15] years ago, doctors have been trained to use it in many other parts of the world. However, at present the operation costs a lot of money. That is partly because it uses new technology. It is still being developed. The catheters are hand made and tipped with platinum - and platinum is more expensive than gold. The catheters cost nearly three thousand [3,000] US dollars each, and the operation may need three of them. The total cost of each operation in Australia today is about fourteen thousand [14,000] US dollars. Michael knows very well that many people in the world could not pay so much.

Voice 2

"I am still finding it hard to believe that I really have been set free from AF. I no longer feel stress and loss of energy. I am a Christian - so I believe that God has used the amazing talents of a team of modern medical professionals to give me a gift of new life and energy. It is not something that I deserve, but something God has given me out of his goodness and generosity. My plan is to use it for as long as I can in a way that pleases him. One way to do that is to tell you my story!"

Voice 1

Today's writers were Michael Charles and Mike Procter. The producer was Ruby Jones. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Michael Charles' words were read by James Totton. You can find scripts and more Spotlight programmes on our website at http://www.radio.english.net. This programme is called "Heart Repair". Thank you for listening. Goodbye.