Caroline Wakanyi walked into the cardiology unit at Aga Khan University Hospital in October 2023, racing against time since doctors had told her she only had 15 days to live.

The 27-year-old was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, a preventable inflammatory disease that can affect many connective tissues, especially in the heart, joints, skin, or brain, that started as an untreated throat infection during her childhood.

“My journey began in 2021; that is when I began feeling weak. Feeling chest pains, I could not breathe. I could not eat anything, and vomiting,” she said.

Caroline’s heart was under constant surveillance, with tests confirming what she feared: her heart was failing, and she needed urgent surgery to replace her damaged valves.

However, the Ksh 1.6 million bill proved too overwhelming for the family, who could only manage to support her regular clinic visits.

“Because of the chest pains, they decided I needed to go for an X-Ray. The doctor noticed something unusual,” she narrated, “she noticed that my heart appeared bigger than usual.”

After undergoing the echo ECG test, it was confirmed she was rheumatic.

The moment that nearly crashed her spirit was when she met her surgeon, who confessed that he was not familiar with Caroline’s case.

“I met the doctor who was to operate on me. He said he had no idea of my story; he is not even familiar with my case.”

However, she had to undergo surgery because, according to the doctor, she only had 15 days to live.

“The same week, we met the doctor again. He said, ‘Now, we have to operate on you because you have only 15 days to live,” she narrated.

Upon visiting the Aga Khan Hospital, she met Dr. Andrew Danken, a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, whose calm demeanor stood in contrast to the panic she was used to from other doctors.

After reviewing Caroline’s case, Dr. Danken told her something she had not heard in a long time; she could be rescued.

On Monday, October 23, 2023, Caroline’s long-awaited surgery finally took place and was successful.

However, the next morning, things took a terrifying turn when her heart stopped twice.

Caroline had had an arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that caused her heart to stop pumping entirely, prompting an urgent referral to reopen her chest in the ICU.

“The same way we would do cardiac massage by pressing on the chest, in instances like this one, we actually had to open the chest and massage the heart manually,” Dr. Peter Ogutu, a cardiac surgeon at AKUH, said.

As Caroline’s heart failed to restart, the team made a critical decision to connect her to a machine that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs. A last resort used only in the most severe cases of heart failure.

“This particular patient was then connected to the ECMO and stayed on it for just about 72 hours. And in between, we could see the heart started recovering slowly.” Dr Ogutu said.

However, Caroline remained unconscious for 40 days, lost her memory, developed a wound infection, and her weight dropped drastically.

“I remember all the body parts had failed. So now, we are dealing with a fragile heart, and we have dialysis to conduct because my kidneys had failed, and my liver had failed by then. I had lost my memory, I could not remember anything. I could not talk; I could not walk,” Caroline said.

For Caroline, Aga Khan University Hospital is where she got a second chance at life.

“Aga Khan came in when I desperately needed help. I would say Aga Khan saved my life,” she concluded.