How teeth extraction led to open heart op for Zehra

HAVING four teeth removed when she was 13 left Teessider Zehra Gumus just days away from death and needing open-heart surgery.

- By SUE KIRBY

Zehra was just one of a handful of people at the time to have undergone the complicated Ross procedure and was the first where surgeons had to carry it out as an emergency, she says.

Now, aged 30, Zehra is embarking on a swimming marathon to boost funds for CHUF, Children's Heart Unit Fund, which supports youngsters with heart problems at the Freeman Hospital.

A care coordinator at a GP practice, Zehra's problem started in late 2008 when she was 13 and needed to have four teeth removed to have braces fitted.

She said: "After that I just began to feel really ill and it got worse and worse. I wasn't eating and was really fatigued and sleeping a lot.

"The teachers were sending me home from school all the time because I was so unwell.