Patient Stories
We’ve found over the years that our patients make the best story tellers. Here are just a few of those stories, and the happy endings we’ve helped write.
Eugene Tsuji was biking on a trail in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Aptos, Calif., when his heart monitor went bananas.
“It took off to about 160 beats per minute and then dropped to 50. It seemed confused. Then it went back to normal,” recalled Tsuji, 47, an avid cyclist, of that day in 2003. “I didn’t notice any symptoms at that point, so I blew it off. I figured there was something wrong with it.”
Over the next four years, he tried other heart monitors, but each would occasionally display the same kind of erratic numbers. As it turned out, the problem wasn’t with the monitors; it was with Tsuji’s heart: He had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm that would come and go for periods ranging from a few seconds to a few hours. “It would feel like a slight hiccup in my chest,” he said.
Tsuji was referred to Paul Wang, MD, an expert on atrial fibrillation at Stanford Hospital. As part of a clinical trial, Wang and his associates were employing a novel balloon ablation catheter, Medtronic Inc.’s Arctic Front, to treat the disease. The device destroys the problem-causing heart tissue by freezing it. Tsuji signed up for the trial. Now, after more than three years with virtually no symptoms, he’s glad he did.
Read Eugene's story here.
Irregular Heartbeat More Than Just a Nuisance
Linda Munoz had been rushed to Stanford Hospital & Clinics on a Life Flight helicopter: The 28-year-old pregnant woman was suffering mysterious heart problems, and doctors feared that they could make delivery not only more difficult, but potentially fatal —for both her and her unborn child.
In the late third trimester of her pregnancy, Munoz’s heart had started racing and would not relent. Mintu Turakhia, MD, MS, a cardiac electrophysiologist, was on call for the Stanford Arrhythmia Service on the day she arrived. “It was quite scary,” he said. “She was having palpitations that had gotten much worse over the course of her pregnancy. The arrhythmia was becoming more sustained and more rapid.
”The normal changes in the body’s blood circulation during pregnancy made her even more vulnerable to losing blood flow to the brain, which made her lightheaded.,” added Turakhia, an instructor of medicine. “To complicate things, we also worried that the arrythmia was affecting the circulation of her baby.
Read Linda Munoz's story here.
New, Minimally Invasive Options for Cardiac Arrhythmia Patients
Stanford surgeons are using a robot-driven assisting arm in a new procedure to correct heart arrhythmia. The robotic arm hovers over the patient, performing precision movements directed by a joystick.
Taking Care of My Heart - Dr. Paul J. Wang
As a cardiologist, Dr. Paul Wang has an extremely busy schedule. But he still finds time to take good care of his heart and body. Playing tennis with his wife is his favorite form of exercise, and he also watches what he eats as best he can. His favorite heart healthy food? His wife's strawberry, bannana and yogurt smoothie.