Life of George Town mum-of-two saved by new Health City lung procedure

When mother-of-two Maricris Talavera Calub developed a persistent cough, she went to the doctor and was given some cough medicine, antibiotics and a nebuliser inhaler in case of an asthma attack.

After a few weeks without any noticeable improvement, the cough suddenly became a lot more serious, when, in the evening of 31 Oct. last year, Calub, 39, started coughing up blood in her home in George Town.

“It was literally Halloween for me,” she recalls. “I thought I was going to die. My husband and my children were so scared.”

Unable to breathe

She immediately called 911. An ambulance took her and her husband, Alvin, to the hospital while a neighbour took care of her young children, Maco, 10 and Alphonse, 5.

On arrival at the hospital, it was clear that Calub’s condition was deteriorating fast. She was coughing up so much blood that she nearly collapsed and had to be placed on a ventilator as she was unable to breathe properly due to blood filling her lungs.

With no pulmonologist available at George Town’s Anthony S. Eden Hospital, she was taken by ambulance to Health City Cayman Islands in East End in the middle of the night where a CT scan revealed a large mass in her lung, which was causing the bleeding.

Upon arrival, her oxygen and blood pressure levels were still critically low. Her kidneys had begun to shut down, and she was cold to the touch. 

Dr. Sriharsha Venkataramanaswamy, consultant pulmonologist at Health City, said that immediate intervention was needed.

“After a CT scan, we found a big mass in the lung, which was causing the bleeding,” he said. “To control the bleeding urgently, we did bronchoscopic endoblocker placement. This is a balloon device that blocks the airway to stop the blood flow. Once the bleeding was under control, our cardiology team performed surgery to remove the affected part of the lung.”

This was the first time that this procedure has ever been carried out in the Cayman Islands and probably saved Calub’s life.

“In massive bleeding like this, it is very important to block the airway quickly and save the life,” said Sriharsha. “With the bronchoscope, we can see the airways and place the balloon in the correct place. Without the endoblocker and bronchoscope, it is very difficult to stop this type of bleeding and most likely, without this equipment, Mrs. Maricris would not have survived.”

The team also decided to initiate ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), an advanced heart-lung support system typically used in heart surgeries, which stabilised her oxygen and blood pressure levels.

Once the bleeding was under control, Health City’s cardiology team performed surgery to remove the affected part of the lung. The operation was a success. Over the next few days, Calub’s lungs began to clear and she was taken off first the ventilator support and then the ECMO. Eleven days after admission, Calub returned home and has since made a full recovery.  

‘Incredibly lucky’

“I was so incredibly lucky,” said Calub, who is a qualified accountant and moved to the Cayman Islands from the Philippines with her husband 10 years ago. “The doctors were so good and looked after me so well. I was so lucky that this happened to me in Cayman. Had this happened to me in the Philippines, I would 100 percent have died.”

Health City’s clinical director and senior cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil, who led the surgical team operating on Calub, said, “Her case highlights the importance of rapid intervention, multidisciplinary care, and advanced medical technology. Without the expertise and ECMO availability at Health City, her survival would have been highly unlikely.”

He added: “This type of case is rare, especially in developed countries, but still occurs more frequently in developing nations where tuberculosis prevalence is high. It was a complex case of massive lung bleeding, respiratory failure, and multi-organ dysfunction.”

With the US$200,000 medical costs all being covered by the couple’s health insurance, there are thankfully no medical or financial implications from Calub’s ordeal, and staff at Health City expect that many other people will be helped by this lifesaving equipment.

“Now that we have this here, many patients can be treated in Cayman itself,” said  Sriharsha. “They will not need to go overseas for this type of treatment.”