|
|
|
Pat's Heart Condition
May 9, 2008 |
Patricia Gerber is a very active senior. But in recent years she noticed a
drastic change in her energy level. “In my seventies I started becoming very
fatigued and tired.” So tired that Patricia could not even make a successful
trip to the grocery store. “I started keeling over into my grocery cart and it’s
like fainting because you aren’t getting enough blood to your heart. I had no
heart attack per say in fact I had no symptoms of chest pain or arm pain as
women think they’re supposed to have.” Physicians told Patricia she had been
born with a heard defect. It wasn’t until she turned 75 that it became
problematic. She was going to have to have immediate heart surgery. “I felt very
comfortable going in even though the surgery was supposed to be very dangerous.
My dearest, dearest friend, my husband who unfortunately at the last minute
burst into tears and I’d never seen him cry before but I still smiled when I
went into surgery and I said darling it’s going to be alright and it was.”
Patricia was on the operating table for eight hours packed in ice. After her
surgery she spent eight days in the Intensive Care Unit at Healthpark Medical
Center. Now she’s learning to live again. “It was a life changing experience for
me.” In next week’s Health Matters we’ll tell you how a Cardiac Rehabilitation
program was able to get Patricia back on her feet. A congenital heart defect is
a problem with the structure of the heart present at birth. They are the most
common type of major birth defect. |
|
|
|
