Profiles | Vikram Viswanathan

He had been in the U.S. for only six months when he learned his life was in peril.

While finishing his second quarter in a master's program in computer science at the University of California, Riverside, Vikram Viswanathan, a native of India, contracted what he thought was just a cold and respiratory infection. He was only 22 at the time and as he sat alone in the waiting room of the university health center, he had no notion of what lay ahead.

As the infection progressed, he found it increasingly difficult to breathe and developed an extremely high fever. While under the care of health center practitioners, his condition deteriorated so quickly that doctors sent him by ambulance to Riverside Community Hospital. A week later, Viswanathan was transferred to the coronary care unit at Loma Linda Hospital, where doctors confirmed that he had a rare inflammatory disease of the heart that can occur with respiratory tract infections. A virus had caused an inflammation of his heart muscle known as myocarditis.

Loma Linda doctors were able to stabilize him, but Viswanathan was too ill to continue with school and decided to come to live with his older brother, Gautham, in Palo Alto. Doctors at nearby Stanford Medical Center provided follow-up care and ultimately confirmed that the virus had damaged his heart muscle.

By the following year, his condition deteriorated more, prompting Viswanathan and his family to seek the advice of Dr. Kanu Chatterjee, a world-renowned cardiologist in the Heart and Vascular Center, who immediately admitted him to UCSF Medical Center.

"Before I saw Dr. Chatterjee I didn't have hope. Dr Chatterjee told me I was going to be OK and gave me hope," said Viswanathan, explaining that this was a critical turning point for him and his family.

Chatterjee and Dr. Teresa De Marco, a UCSF heart failure/heart transplant cardiologist, aggressively treated Viswanathan with intravenous medication to improve the pumping action of his heart and drain the fluid that had accumulated. With careful monitoring of his medication, his condition gradually improved, for about two years, according to De Marco.

Toward the end of 2002, however, Viswanathan's condition began to worsen again. By this time he had severe symptoms of heart failure, including breathlessness, extreme fatigue, fluid accumulation and a swollen liver, according to De Marco. Despite frequent outpatient visits and medication adjustments, Viswanathan's health continued to deteriorate. UCSF Medical Center doctors attempted to improve his condition with biventricular pacing -- implanting a pacemaker-like device that helps to resynchronize the bottom chambers of the heart to improve the heart's pumping ability. Despite this therapy, Viswanathan required hospitalization once again. This time, his only option was a heart transplant. And he would need it fast.

His mother Vinothini, father Ekambaram, brother Gautham, sister Sharmila and good friend Jelena Curovic kept vigil by his bedside. At night, his family members stayed in a nearby hotel -- except his father, who remained by Viswanathan's bedside. "In a cot, on the floor, in a chair, he was there constantly. He never left my side. My entire family was there for me all the time. Without them I wouldn't be alive."

And along the way, Viswanathan got similar support from one UCSF doctor in particular. "Dr. De Marco took care of me like my own mother," he said, reflecting on how her expertise, compassion, patience and humor pulled him through the most difficult period of his life.

Nine days later, on the morning of July 3, 2003, Dr. Charles Hoopes, a transplant surgeon in the Comprehensive CardioVascular Center, came to Viswanathan's bedside to announce that UCSF doctors had located a heart. In the early hours of July 4, Hoopes transplanted a new heart into the 27-year-old.

Viswanathan's recovery was speedy. With the help of the intensive care nurses and clinical nurse specialist Jill Obata, he was able to return home at the end of July and was back to work as a software engineer at a Palo Alto company by late September.

"I have a lot of energy now, and I almost feel completely back to normal," said Viswanathan.

"I am able to work, do yoga, play tennis and jog a little on the treadmill," he said. Viswanathan takes long walks and hikes with his brother Gautham, who has been at his side since that very first evening at Riverside Community hospital -- five years ago.

"I am thankful for the ability to enjoy every second of my life. And I realize that none of this would have been possible without the doctors and nurses at UCSF Medical Center. They are unbelievable," said Viswanathan. "I've been to so many different hospitals, and I haven't seen the kind of dedication UCSF Medical Center people have."

He looks forward to his continued recovery and perhaps making another visit to UCSF Medical Center -- this time under different circumstances. "Because I have so much gratitude to express to Dr. Hoopes for his excellent care, I would like to honor his suggestion to visit other patients waiting for a new heart."

Story written in December 2003. Photograph taken by Christine Jegan.

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