Miracle Man
With the right team and the right tools, anything is possible – even miracles.
Something was terribly wrong with Eddie. In the darkness of a rainy December
night, the pain radiated through his body with the fury of a lightning
strike. What began as simple back pain had turned into shocks of agony
traveling through his body like electricity. Eddie’s family rushed
him to the nearest emergency room where a CT scan delivered terrifying
news: Eddie’s aorta, the major blood vessel carrying blood from
the heart to the body, had ruptured. Eddie needed to be transferred to
Kaweah Delta for emergency surgery to fix an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm,
and he had less than an hour to live.
“When I got to Kaweah Delta, they swarmed me,” Eddie remembers.
“I could hear Dr. Hamdi delivering orders like a drill sergeant.
He told me they were going to do everything possible to save me.”
Dr. AbdulRahman Hamdi, a vascular surgeon with South Valley Vascular, a
physician group affiliated with Kaweah Delta, was the surgeon on-call
that fateful night. “When I saw his CT scans, I called Kaweah Delta
immediately to prep the team for Eddie’s arrival,” said Dr.
Hamdi. “He was bleeding out from the inside and we needed to get
him to the operating room as soon as possible.”
The operating room Dr. Hamdi needed prepped isn’t your typical operating
room. To save Eddie’s life, Dr. Hamdi needed to perform surgery
in Kaweah Delta’s state-of-the-art Hybrid Surgical Suite. “You
cannot do the procedure Eddie needed in standard operating rooms,”
explained Dr. Hamdi. “In cases like Eddie’s, you already have
the cards stacked against you. Not having a hybrid room makes surgery
much more labor intensive. You’re not going to perform at the level
you need to save people’s lives. The hybrid surgical suite is what
opens the door to performing the kind of procedures we couldn’t
do before.”
Dr. Hamdi continued. “If we didn’t have the resources, equipment,
and physicians at Kaweah Delta, Eddie would have been sent to Fresno or
Stanford and he wouldn’t have made it. Time is of the essence and
Eddie didn’t have 30-40 minutes to wait. He would have died in transport.
We had the right team, the right tools, and access to the hybrid suite
to save Eddie’s life.”
Eddie survived a health crisis few people live to talk about, and he believes
his mother in heaven and Dr. Hamdi are who kept him alive. “God
gave me the courage to face my difficulties but without Dr. Hamdi and
Kaweah Delta, my life wouldn’t have been restored,” shared
Eddie. “My mother was watching over me and now Dr. Hamdi calls me
his ‘miracle man.’ I feel reborn and owe my life to Kaweah
Delta.”
The Right Team: South Valley Vascular
The mission of the South Valley Vascular team is to provide the highest
quality vascular care and 5-star surgical care to our local communities.
With over 50 years of combined experience, the physicians at South Valley
Vascular focus on the health of your blood vessels, except for those in
the brain and heart, and treat conditions and diseases of the arteries
and veins including:
-
Peripheral artery disease (PAD): blockages in the arteries of the legs that lead to leg pain, and foot ulcers.
-
Varicose veins: from cosmetic spider veins to painful, ulcerated varicosities of the legs.
-
Carotid Artery disease: blockages in the arteries of the neck that may cause a stroke.
-
Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA): Surgical and endovascular treatment of the aneurysm to prevent continued
growth and rupture, which may be catastrophic.
-
Dialysis access care: for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
-
Angiogram: a series of X-rays taken of the arteries after an injection of contrast
dye, making the blood vessels visible.
-
Ultrasound: to examine the arteries and veins of the legs. We also perform ultrasounds
for patients with carotid artery disease, aortic aneurysms, and patients
on dialysis.
Our Providers
The Right Tools: Hybrid Surgical Suite
Our endovascular team focuses on the diseases of the arteries and veins
throughout the body. Often vascular surgeons are working to save limbs
for those with diabetes or opening up the arteries into the brain to prevent stroke.
Common endovascular procedures include:
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm or (AAA) repair
- Endoluminal AAA repair (EVAR)
- Carotid endarterectomy
- Carotid stenting Sclerotherapy
- Endovascular intervention (Angioplasty/Stenting/Athrectomy)
- Laser ablation
- Ambulatory phlebectomy
- Acute limb ischemia
- Balloon embolectomy
- Thrombectomy
- Thrombolysis
- Thoracic stent graft
Kaweah Delta's Hybrid Endovascular Operating Room gives surgeons the
ability to perform traditional, open surgery and minimally invasive, endovascular
procedures on the same patient, at the same time, in the same place. Our
OR technology provides surgeons continuous 3-D imaging and the opportunity
to perform intricate procedures on people with severe, life-threatening
conditions, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to state-of-the-art
surgical equipment, the hybrid OR also contains advanced imaging equipment
needed for minimally invasive techniques – angiography, CT scans
and MRI – providing clear and accurate visualization of small vessels,
stents, catheters and guide wires during complex procedures.
Having the ability to perform imaging studies in the same room eliminates
the need to move patients during a procedure and reduces the risk of infection.
Patients also benefit by:
- Shorter procedure times
- Less radiation used during imaging
- Reduced need for ICU care
- Shorter hospital stays
- Faster recovery
The Right Partners: Cleveland Clinic
Our affiliation with Cleveland Clinic Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute,
ranked the nation’s No. 1 heart program by
U.S. News & World Report, means our patients have access to the broadest possible range of solutions
from skilled, experienced doctors, nurses and technicians. Options you
may not have anywhere else in the region.
Quality
- Kaweah Delta provides data pertaining to the areas of interventional cardiology,
electrophysiology, cardiac imaging and heart failure management. This
data will be collected utilizing databases or registries allowing for
a global assessment of our performance.
- Cleveland Clinic and Kaweah Delta’s review quality and performance
protocols.
- Cleveland Clinic heart experts are available to review complex cases and
discuss the appropriate care plans for patients.
- Our heart & vascular physicians can access Cleveland Clinic for review
of diagnostic and interventional images for quality review purposes.
- Provide consultation on the use or acquisition of new technology for the
benefit of our patients.
Training
- Cleveland Clinic has extensive patient care protocols, clinical practice
guidelines and patient education materials for use by Kaweah Delta.
- Kaweah Delta’s participates in Cleveland Clinic-sponsored Continuing
Medical Education (CME) courses, department meetings and training.
“God gave me the courage to face my difficulties but without Dr.
Hamdi and Kaweah Delta, my life wouldn’t have been restored. I feel
reborn and owe my life to Kaweah Delta.” -
Eddie 