Here's Milagro standing next to his best friend, Dharma. After his heart surgery, we took him to a cardiac specialist at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine for one last attempt to try to save Milagro's life. His murmur was stage VI -- the most extreme --and could be heard without a stethoscope. The last hope for blocking the large hole through which the blood was flowing was to insert a catheter in his hind leg, and try to work a coil up through the femoral artery and place it in the hole. Unfortunately, the coil needed to fill the hole was much too large to fit through Milagro's tiny blood vessels.
With no other options for saving his life, a decision was made to try to lodge a series of smaller coils in the hole. One dislodged and was carried into the pulmonary artery. But 4 were successfully placed. A die test shortly after the procedure showed that the hole was now 95% blocked.
Please follow this link for Milagro's current condition and to see Milagro with his favorite lion.
Please follow this link to see Milagro after his first heart operation.
Please follow this link to the family of special-needs cats and dogs who live in our home.