The new wheels will also carry much bigger loads than the lightweight rovers Apollo astronauts cruised around in.
Pre-op checks had indicated Mrs Readhead's left side was to be used for the TAVI, as her right side had some blockages because of calcified arteries.The manufacturer of the TAVI device that was to be implanted had also written a technical report clearly stating that access via the patient's right artery was unsuitable.
On the day of the operation however, the TAVI medics went in through Mrs Readhead's right leg by mistake. Realising their error, they paused to consider their options but decided to continue - despite the procedure being an elective rather than an emergency operation.They attempted to deploy the TAVI three times.The repeated efforts resulted in a significant tear in Mrs Readhead's femoral artery, a major blood vessel. By now, she had been on the surgical table for six hours, lost five litres of blood, and had been awake throughout.
Mrs Readhead's care was "graded poor" by the RCP in its 2021 report. It concluded this because of the use of an "inappropriate access site" during a procedure, stating this "unfortunately resulted in an avoidable vascular complication".The TAVI team's decisions "resulted in a disaster for this patient", an anaesthetist called in to rescue the situation wrote two days after the operation in an email - seen by the BBC.
He described it as "a change of plan without weighing the risks vs benefit for the patient, but having a 'have a go' approach".
Dr Thanjavur Bragadeesh, then-clinical director of the cardiac unit, suggested the case should be declared a serious incident (SI) when he was made aware of it a few days later. This would mean a full investigation by the hospital.Mwangi said his "abduction" was shocking in how brazen it was as he had been "picked from a very prominent hotel".
"So having been abducted during broad daylight and never knowing where I was, and I was still tortured, means that the Tanzanian government doesn't care about what people think about it," he told the BBC.Earlier, Atuhaire said that despite Uganda being "very dictatorial", she did not imagine she "would find a worse foreign country, a worse government".
Mwangi said their experience showed "how broken" countries in East Africa were."So it makes me more of a pan-African in this fight," he told the BBC.