Ten years ago, Nanjing resident Mr Duan was diagnosed with Rheumatic Heart Disease (a damaged heart valve). Although the disease has relentlessly caused him chest pressure and shortness of breath, he’s been terrified of surgery since he was young, and has refused to get it checked. As the disease has become worse each year, Duan, now 37-years-old, has basically lost the ability to move around by himself. Recently, he’s spent most of his time in bed, wheezing and coughing up pink sputum. Finally, on the eve of Spring Festival, unable to bear it any longer, his family sent him to Nanjing First Hospital.

Duan’s X-rays shocked the doctors: his heart filled almost his entire chest cavity. While a normal person’s heart takes up about half of the thoracic cavity, Duan’s occupied 95% of the space. In a normal heart, the diameter of the left atrial appendage is about 40 mm; Duan’s was 124 mm. In total, Duan’s heart was about the size of a volleyball, eight times the normal size. Simply put, Duan was having trouble breathing because his heart was crushing his lungs and esophagus. After a five-hour surgical procedure, doctors managed to substantially reduce the size of Duan’s heart, and while it will never be completely restored to normal size, at least all of his symptoms have improved. 

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Keywords: Nanjing man heart 8 times bigger than normal