Born with a hole in her heart, Ayşenur Çalışkan had a pacemaker implanted at the age of 4. Having her pacemaker generator replaced at the ages of 9 and 15, Çalışkan applied to hospitals in Konya and Ankara with complaints of chest spasms, numbness in her arms and heart failure when she was 24.
Despite having his pacemaker generator replaced for the third time, Çalışkan, whose discomfort did not improve, was examined by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mevlüt Serdar Kuyumcu, a faculty member at the Cardiology Department of Isparta Süleyman Demirel University Research and Training Hospital, upon his wife’s recommendation.
When he looked at Çalışkan’s tomography, Kuyumcu realized that the pacemaker cable that was inserted 20 years ago had now connected to the patient’s organs, that the cable was entering and exiting many veins, and that the patient would lose his life if it was removed. He focused on treating the cable without removing it.
In order for the new battery system to work efficiently, Kuyumcu came up with the idea of removing the metal conductive cables inside the old battery one by one without damaging the outer layer of the cable, which had no previous application example, and after receiving the patient’s approval, he started the surgery.
Kuyumcu, together with Cardiologist Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bayram Ali Uysal, who assisted him in the operation, cut the cable they reached from the patient’s abdominal cavity in about 3 hours without performing open heart surgery and removed dozens of 20-centimeter metal cables inside without damaging the outer layer. After this intervention, Çalışkan, who was fitted with a new pacemaker system (generator and lead), was discharged from the hospital the next day.
“OUR TREATMENT METHOD IS A NEW OPTION”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mevlüt Serdar Kuyumcu, who was also deemed worthy of the 3rd Most Successful Young Cardiologist of the Year in 2019, 2nd Most Successful Young Cardiologist of the Year in 2020, and 1st Most Successful Young Cardiologist of the Year in 2022 by the Turkish Cardiology Association, said that they could not perform open surgery because the complete removal of the battery cable posed a great life-threatening risk to the patient.