The cases below are documented in the public press or on Dr. Rafik's hospital channels. Names and details are real and shared with consent.
“Three London surgeons told me it couldn't be done.”
— Lorna, before coming to Dubai
Lorna was born in 1982 with Tetralogy of Fallot — a four-part congenital heart defect. As a child, she had open-heart surgery in the UK to correct it. By her late thirties, the valves repaired in childhood had failed. She was breathless climbing a single flight of stairs.
Imaging at hospitals in the UK and Dubai showed two valves on the right side of her heart no longer working. She also had pulmonary hypertension — raised pressure in the lung arteries that would magnify the risk of any operation. Three London cardiac surgeons told her the procedure was simply too dangerous to attempt: too many adhesions from the prior chest surgeries, too much pulmonary pressure, too much surgical risk.
She flew to Dubai instead.
At Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital, Dubai Healthcare City, Dr. Rafik led the redo procedure. Opening the chest a third time took three hours alone — the previous surgeries had left adhesions binding the heart to the breastbone, requiring careful dissection before the operation itself could begin. Once inside, his team replaced the pulmonary valve and repaired the tricuspid.
A week later, Lorna was discharged.
For five years, Abdullah lived with worsening breathlessness, fatigue, and a heart that was increasingly straining under invisible pressure. The diagnosis, when it came, was one most cardiologists see only once or twice in a career: chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, or CTEPH — a rare condition affecting just 3 to 30 people per million.
In CTEPH, blood clots in the pulmonary arteries fail to dissolve as they should. Instead they organise into fibrous scar tissue, narrowing the lung's blood supply and forcing the right side of the heart to pump against fatal resistance. Untreated, the disease is progressive and lethal.
There is only one curative surgery for CTEPH: pulmonary thromboendarterectomy. The chest is opened, the patient placed on cardiopulmonary bypass, the body cooled to deep hypothermia, and the heart stopped completely while the surgeon meticulously dissects out the scarred lining of every pulmonary artery branch. It is performed at only a handful of expert centres globally.
In August 2024, Dr. Rafik and his team performed Abdullah's surgery at Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital in Dubai Healthcare City. The procedure saved his life.
Featured by Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group, August 2024.
Patient Interview
A patient interview filmed at Dr. Rafik's Dubai practice, recounting their experience with cardiac surgery and recovery.
Every patient story below requires the patient's written consent before publication. As we collect new ones, they will be added here. Share yours →
Robotic-assisted mitral repair through three small ports between the ribs. No breastbone cut, home in four days.
A multi-vessel bypass without sternotomy — back to driving inside two weeks.
Valve-sparing root surgery for a young patient with Marfan syndrome — preserved native valve, normal life.
A benign atrial tumour found incidentally on echo — removed with curative intent, monitored for recurrence.
A hole between the heart's upper chambers, closed through a vein in the leg — same-day discharge.
Help future patients by sharing your experience — what brought you to Dr. Rafik, what the surgery was like, and how recovery went.
Submit yoursHearing from a real patient reaches anxious people in a way that no doctor's biography can. If you're willing to share — in your own words — we'd be honoured.
If your case is complex, or if you've been told it can't be done — send us your imaging. Dr. Rafik's team responds within one working day.
