A 34-year-old secondary-school teacher from Addis Ababa was told by his cardiologist that his mitral valve was critically narrowed. The mitral valve controls blood flow between the two left chambers of the heart. When it is scarred it can become too narrow, called mitral stenosis, or too leaky. In his case the cause was rheumatic heart disease, which often starts with a childhood throat infection that is not fully treated: the resulting rheumatic fever can damage the heart valves over the years.
The narrowing affected his daily life. He had stopped walking up the hill to school and paced his words to his breath. His cardiologist warned him that without surgery the outlook was limited, and at home he was on a long waiting list with no confirmed date. A church elder gave his wife a phone number, and she sent a message by WhatsApp that evening. The coordinators replied within 20 minutes.
He had a mitral valve replacement at Medanta, Gurugram, and flew home 14 days after the operation. Three months later he was teaching again.
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This story is shared with the patient's consent.