Successful Heart Bypass - Ekaterina - Sofia

I wrote this a few weeks ago. My husband had his surgery on the 16th October and will have a 3-week checkup tomorrow & the stitches removed in Sofia. He is still very sore and tired, with a huge cut through his sternum but is recovering. Time will heal. Here we go:

We stay just outside Bansko near the Pirin Golf course. We are registered with a GP in Razlog. We pay into the Bulgarian medical system. Adu my husband has been feeling a bit breathless, especially if there is a slope when walking. Our GP made an appointment with a cardiologist at Razlog hospital. He had X-ray, ECG, and numerous blood tests. One of the last things to do would be an angiogram, but we would need to go to Blagoevgrad for that. We were in Greece visiting our daughter. On the last night walking up a bit of a slope, he felt some chest pain. I said we would stop in Blagoevgrad the next day (Wednesday) on the drive back.

The angiogram showed 90% narrowing on the main left coronary artery and 80-90% narrowing in several  others. We were meant to be flying to South Africa the next week. They said the air pressure changes would most likely have caused a heart attack. The situation was too dire for stents. He was transported by ambulance to St Ekaterina Sofia. This hospital is the top cardio hospital in Bulgaria. It is an academic government hospital.

He underwent 5-hour triple coronary artery bypass graft surgery on Friday. He was in ICU for 2 nights and now is in a sub ICU ward. I was horrified yesterday, when they moved him by wheel chair instead of a bed between wards, when they made him sit up to eat some yoghurt. But my brother, a GP in Canada reassured me the most important thing is to work through the pain if one can, with brute strength & get the body, lungs and heart moving. The longer you lie still in bed after cardiac surgery the greater chance of infection and perhaps pneumonia. So at times they seem rough in their approach but they are working from knowledge. This morning he took his first steps.

It is a long road ahead. But it’s all a miracle. As our Plovdiv friend Gwyn says the Bulgarian yearly medical insurance is a no brainer. It has covered everything apart from a tax of 700 euro for the top professor to do the operation, that we agreed to pay. A whole cardio team worked on their plan to save him and assisted the professor. I am so very grateful. Ashley