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. Abdul Rahman 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 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 50years 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:
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:
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, 24hours 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:
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
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