18.05.2025 19:05
Five-and-a-half-year-old Fatma Nur Yolaldı was born with a heart positioned horizontally in her chest. The abnormal position of her heart put pressure on the main artery supplying her lungs, causing Fatma Nur's left lung to completely collapse last year. She needed surgery, but no center wanted to perform it due to the high risks involved. With a surgery that was performed for the first time in Turkey, Fatma Nur has regained her health.
Fatma Nur, the 5.5-year-old second child of the couple Fadile and Mustafa Yolaldı living in Ankara, was born with her heart in a 'horizontal' position in her chest cavity.
HER LIFE BEGAN WITH A SERIOUS SURGERY AT JUST 30 DAYS OLD Aside from this disease, known as 'Topsy-Turvy syndrome' and very rare worldwide, there was a hole in the wall between the main artery that feeds Fatma Nur's lungs and the aorta that distributes blood throughout the body, due to another very rare anomaly. Fatma Nur began her life with a serious surgery she underwent at a center in Ankara when she was just 30 days old, and the hole in the wall between the vessels was closed. However, when she turned 1 year old, respiratory difficulties began due to the abnormal position of her heart.
HER LIFE WAS SPENT IN HOSPITALS Because her heart, which was positioned almost 90 degrees upside down in her chest cavity, was putting pressure on the main artery that feeds her lungs. Fatma Nur's life was spent in hospitals for the next 4 years. Eventually, her left lung failed. Therefore, Fatma Nur's right lung and her life were also in danger, and she needed to undergo a surgery to change the position of the artery that her heart was pressing on. However, this surgery had never been performed in Turkey before.
"THE LEFT LUNG WAS COMPLETELY OUT OF ORDER" At the moment her family had completely lost hope, they reached out to Prof. Dr. Afksendiyos Kalangos, the Head of the Pediatric and Congenital Cardiovascular Surgery Department at Koç University Medical School Hospital, who is known for overcoming the most difficult cases worldwide. Fatma Nur's life was saved thanks to a surgery performed last March by a large team led by Prof. Dr. Kalangos and Opr. Dr. Yılmaz Zorman, with the support of the Kalangos Foundation and Koç University Hospital. The little girl will enter the world medical literature as the second case to be born with this syndrome and survive after surgery. Prof. Dr. Kalangos explained that he had to take all risks to perform this surgery for Fatma Nur, saying, "If we hadn't operated, she would have died." He described the condition: "Topsy-Turvy is a bad syndrome. The heart, which should normally be oblique, is completely horizontal in the chest cavity. The two large vessels that feed the lungs are compressed behind and below the heart. Moreover, there is a second congenital heart pathology, which we call an aortopulmonary window. There is a hole in the connection between the two large vessels coming out of the heart. This hole was closed when she was one month old. But when she was six months old, respiratory difficulties started again. The heart is functioning well, but as she grows, there are significant respiratory difficulties in the left lung. A stent was placed in the lung to open the blocked bronchus, but when the surrounding tissues entered the stent, it became completely blocked again, and the left lung was completely out of order."
"A MIRACLE BECAUSE SHE IS THE SECOND CASE TO SURVIVE AFTER SURGERY" Prof. Dr. Kalangos, who said, "When I saw Fatma Nur's clinical picture, I thought I had to do something," continued his words: "The child was in such a situation that the only hope was to create a new vessel through surgery, which meant saving her right lung and thus saving her life. With the help of the institution, she was admitted to the hospital as a training case, and we performed a beautiful surgery together with Dr. Yılmaz. It was not possible to correct the horizontal position of the heart. But we eliminated the pressure on the airways. We did this by cutting the main artery coming from the heart, extending one side, and passing it into the left chest cavity to create a new aortic arch. We used a long vessel of about 11 centimeters taken from a deceased person. Since the left lung had turned into an inflammatory abscess, we had to completely remove it. This case became one I will never forget. A miracle, because this syndrome is very, very rare in the world. There is only one living case after a surgery performed with a technique similar to this one published in the world. Moreover, our patient's left lung was also lost. We entered this surgery with a very strong team. After all, the success of a case depends on competent human resources."
THE FIRST CASE IN TURKEY WHERE THIS SURGERY WAS SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMED Opr. Dr. Yılmaz Zorman noted that with this successful surgery, Fatma Nur is the first case in Turkey, providing the following information: "There is no other successful surgery in the literature where a complete correction has been made in this way in Turkey. We made a complete correction in the vessels. This was a case that we may never see or experience again in our professional lives. We applied rarely used techniques during the surgery. For example, we cooled the patient's body to 20 degrees using a method called 'deep hypothermia' during the surgery. By working under those conditions, we also eliminated the potential brain damage that could occur. Everyone waited by her side for days. We spent the holiday here, in the hospital, all together."
SHE WILL NOW GO TO THE PARK WITH JOY Fatma Nur's mother, Fadile Yolaldı, stated that her daughter has achieved a miracle for the second time and summarized their 5-year struggle as follows: "The abnormality in her heart was noticed during a detailed ultrasound when I was 4.5 months pregnant.
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It was said that it was a syndrome seen in one in a million after birth, that it would be very difficult for him to survive, and that we should even give up hope. When we took him for his first surgery, the doctors told us to be prepared for anything. We spent 40 days in the hospital. Until he was one year old, there were not many problems; everything developed well. Until he was hospitalized due to pneumonia. They said at every center we went to that he wouldn't see 4 or 5 years old. In fact, we knocked on every door, but every door we went to was closed in our faces because it was a very risky surgery. He couldn't breathe, he had respiratory failure, and he never got to enjoy going to the park and playing. Now we are eagerly waiting for the day he will go to school. Hopefully, we will be a source of hope for everyone from now on. I reunited with my daughter for the second time; she became a miracle for me twice.
"WE TRUSTED OUR DAUGHTER TO ALLAH FIRST, THEN TO HIM" Father Mustafa Yolaldı expressed his feelings by saying that they trusted Allah first and then Prof. Dr. Kalangos and his team: "We applied to many centers in Ankara and Istanbul for my daughter's treatment. The answer we received from all of them was that they could not perform this surgery, as it was a very rare case. We heard that Professor Kalangos accepted cases that were said to be impossible and succeeded with God's permission. We entrusted our daughter to Allah first, then to him."
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