Advanced Cardiac Interventions During Pregnancy: A Personal Perspective.

Abstract

In one of my worst ever night shifts, I witnessed a 32-year-old pregnant woman dying while her first toddler was sitting on her bed. She died of heart failure due to a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (pSCAD) with a retrograde dissection of the whole left coronary artery. Another woman I will never forget was a mother of seven with a severe peripartum cardiomyopathy during her eighth pregnancy. She barely survived, and we managed to convince the religious couple to undergo sterilisation simultaneously with her caesarean section. Distressing experiences such as these require the courage of obstetricians alongside good collaboration with (interventional) cardiologists and other medical specialists.