Good afternoon everybody. Hope all of you doing well.

I am completely honoured to be invited for the

She inspires session today. I have been listening to this series She inspires and the stories from many of
you around. Honestly I was inspired hearing to all those and after the last session is what I thought I
should share some of my experiences and volunteered for this and yes now am here as one of the
speaker.

To start with I always feel I am one of the most blessed and lucky with the best parents, best grand
parents, world’s best in-laws one can have at my times. Yes, I am able to hear some of you thinking,
when this person is having everything and she claims herself to be blessed, what is the story that she is
going to share. Yes with all the blessings, I too have few stories to share and how it made me strong and
never gave up

Some of you must have heard about Congenital Heart Disease.

What is Congenital: The term ‘congenital’ means ‘present from birth’. Congenital heart disease, one of
the most common birth defects, is a set of defects that affects the way in which the heart develops and
functions from birth and has the capacity to change the way blood flows through a person’s heart

There are many types in it

1. Problems that cause too much blood to pass through the lungs.

2. Problems that cause too little blood to pass through the lungs

3. Atrial septal defect (ASD). In this condition, there is a hole between the 2 upper chambers of the heart
—the right and left atria. This causes an abnormal blood flow through the heart. Some children may
have no symptoms and appear healthy..

Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA)

4. Transposition of the great arteries (TGA) is a type of heart defect that your baby is born with
(congenital). In this condition, the two arteries that carry blood from the heart to the lungs and body
aren’t connected as they should be. They are reversed (transposed).

With ASD and TGA, my sister was born. Was at a very average health for the 1 st 4 years. Fortunate or
unfortunate, I took the advantage of timing and as early as I was born, her symptons started showing up
where she was unable to breath properly and was supported with oxygen cylinders, with that the story
continued with 75% of the days being hospitalized for the remaining 15 years. Kudos to Chennai GH and
the cardiology department.

I was young enough to not understand these complexities and I was in my own sibling rivalry where I
could see that she is pampered heavily, and I being given all the work at home. I used to fight with my
mother for equality at that time and gave my mother lot of challenges. But poor lady did not have an
option but to push me to do all the house hold chores as she was mostly in the hospital with my sister.
This made me to start my cooking and take care of house as early as the age of 10 and slowly started to
support her for studies. When I was in class 8, I used to help her for class 10 subjects and slowly she
completed her 12th and was passionate to go to college. Life did not give her more and at my age of 15 ,
my sister passed away leaving a big vacuum in our family. It took us years again to come back to
normalcy. What did I learn in this journey was my parents tireless service at all times and the positive
hopes though the reality was known at a very early stage. They were my role model parents and that
gave me the energy and courage to handle things that happened in rest of my life.

My next event was about my first child.

She was delivered as a pre matured baby as there were problem in my pregnancy called placenta previa
where the placenta grows in the lower part of the womb. She came out at 28 weeks with a birth weight
of 1.8 kgs. Everybody around me was so scared to even lift the baby and was not so hopeful that she will
survive. Somehow none of these fell in to my ears and my only focus was on her and made sure she
survived. When the risk of her survival was assured, next challenge creeped in. The ankle bend was not
blessed for her and the doctors said the baby will not walk. But God was kind enough on me to show me
a place where there were specialized shoes for this condition and continuous Exercise may turn round
things. Worked day and night and gave her the exercise manually and made sure in the next 6 to 8
months, she was able to stand and walk. In this journey I was ready to fight things of course completely
supported by my entire family, I needed one person as an example who had undergone this in my
nearest circle to just to keep me motivated and that did not happen till the end. But I made sure that
tell this story to those suffering from this and made sure they have an example before and can deal with
it.

At this point I thought things started to settle down personally and I started to focus on my career
growth. Started to work with Satyam computers. Left my little daughter under my parents and in-laws
care took up an work assignment in Singapore. Next 3 years I spent there where I never ever realised it
is going to be an impact at the later part of my life.

After my Singapore assignment got over, I came back to my home location and was fully caught up in a
next generation project where everything thing was a new learning from business terminologies,
technology, the stack of softwares used. It was a highly challenging project where I had to spend days
and nights. During this time is when my mother in law went through a unique problem which was later
diagnosed as Descending aortic dissection. An aortic dissection is a serious condition in which a tear
occurs in the inner layer of the body's main artery (aorta). Blood rushes through the tear,
causing the inner and middle layers of the aorta to split (dissect). If the blood goes through the
outside aortic wall, aortic dissection is often deadly.
Here is where I wanted to talk about how it all happened. My in-laws stay in a small village near
Chenglepet. One night she sort of realized a sensation of sever pain in the chest and slowly
started to feel a pain which is like tearing and ripping. My father-in-law somehow managed to
admit her in the nearby hospital and called us the next day morning 5 am saying she has
encountered heart attack. I went to hospital and 2 days they could not diagnose anything as the
ECG was showing erratically and she had pain all over. Suddenly I knew something was wrong
and had my cousin’s friend as cardiology surgeon who was then working in Apollo hospitals.
Called that person and told the symptoms. He gave me confidence saying that all the
emergency entry arrangement will be made and asked me to shift the patient to Apollo as early
as he can. But the hospital in which the treatment was going on was reluctant to discharge. I
took my mother in law at my own risk in an ambulance by signing saying I take the risk of
anything that will happen in transit and put her on my lap with oxygen tubes on. Shifted her to
Apollo Creams Road Chennai. Later in an MRI scan is what we found she has undergone the
Descending Aortic dissection and this is due to very high Blood pressure. Treatment was only to
bring the Blood pressure down. 1 month she spent in various wards from [Link]. After this
incident she was completely bed ridden and she became dependent for all her activities like
walking, bathing, combing, eating etc. So, I was blessed to take care of her at this condition with
my support from the father in law and my husband, Still continued to have my most critical job
assignment. Never gave up. If things like WFH or even if was given laptop and connectivity, I
still feel I would have done even more.
After 3 years of Treatment, she showed a lot of improvements and started to do things on her
own. Fate did not leave us again. My husband is the eldest son of the family. He had 4 younger
brothers. 3rd brother was into business and may be was undergoing some sort of stress which
we did not realise. He committed suicide and I had to witness that which was again a mind
blogging incident. It was a nightmare to bring back my mother whom I had taken utmost care
from what she had already undergone.
Jan2020 my mother in law passed away due to heart attack and she never knew anything about
the covid situation leaving my father-in-law behind. I completely shifted him to my place and
taking care of him. Currently diagnosed of pancreatic Cancer and under Palliative care.

With all these going on for my blessed soul, what kept motivated is the oppurtunies that I grabbed
everytime and practices Learning and unlearning. Everyone of you will be familiar with Learning. But,
what is this unlearning.

Learning never exhausts the mind

Success never comes in comfort zone

Congenital Heart Disease