By Brooky Brown, Health Essentials Reporter

                When Alice Stone was a little girl, she realized she couldn’t do a lot of things other kids could do. She simply couldn’t keep up. She could only rider her bike a short distance, for example. Still, she was never diagnosed with any medical problems.

                Life went on and Stone didn’t allow her lack of stamina to impede her life. She married, gave birth to four children in five years and just kept going even though she was often extremely tired.

                When her youngest child was 8, Stone went to work in a canning factory in Jackson,

Mich. While in Michigan she ended up in the hospital because she couldn’t get her breath.

                Many tests were done and she was told she had a pear-shaped heart with the right side larger than the left.

                “Back then they didn’t do surgery,” she said.

                Her doctor told her she could walk a mile, but she couldn’t paddle her own canoe because of the arm movements that required.

                Eventually she got bronchitis and was required to have two echocardiograms- an ultrasound used to study the heart. When the second one came back, Stone said the doctor got a funny look on his face and told her she has a hole in her heart. That explained why she didn’t have much energy-she was oxygen deprived.

                She moved to Englewood in 1985 and was refused surgery for her condition by more than one surgeon. Eventually, Stone was wheelchair-bound and oxygen-dependent.

                That’s when she met Dr. Jonathan Fong of the Venice Ocala Heart Institute. And that’s when things began to change for Stone.

                In 2007 Fong agreed to perform the much needed surgery to repair the hole in Stone’s heart.

                It was a risky surgery because of Stone’s age and her diminished lung capacity. She had a long history of smoking and suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

                Fong met with Stone and her daughters and was quite frank about the potential success of the surgery and Stone’s ability to live through it.

                A consideration Fong looked at before agreeing to do the surgery was whether repairing the hole would correct some if not all of the symptoms Stone was experiencing.  He considered Her smoking history and the poor health results of her lung-function tests.

                Fong felt there was a reasonable possibility that she could get off of oxygen and no longer be confined to a wheel-chair.

                Stone’s own words carried weight as well.

“This is not living,” She told Fong.

                Fong says he likes to make eye contact with patients to see if they have a zest for life. He explained carefully to Stone the recovery process and her zest didn’t fade.

                Stone’s Daughters played a role in Fong’s decision to move forward too.

                “They were very attentive and listened to everything,” he said.

                The family met with the anesthesiologist to understand the risks the risks involved there as well.

                One of the things that impressed Stone and her daughters was that Fong sat on Stone’s hospital bed and prayed with her.

                “He told me he’s had three or four miracles and I’m one of them,” she said.

                Fong said he was confident of his technical ability to fix Stone’s heart, but he always prays for wisdom and guidance for the surgical team and for the family to appreciate God’s presence and realize the proceedings rest in God’s hands.

                “Many patients appreciate the prayer more than the surgical expertise-even those who aren’t believers,” he said.

                Stone was 78 when she received the life-changing surgery. She spent 22 days in the hospital and survived many life-threatening complications.

                Today she is 82 and is no longer confined to a wheelchair or depended on oxygen. Now she shops and travels. Since her surgery, she’s been to Oregon and to Massachusetts and Michigan twice each.

                “I would recommend those doctors (at Venice Ocala Heart Institute) to anyone” she said.

Venice High School Senior Julie Cessna was chosen as the winner of Venice Regional Medical Center’s  “Name the Robot” contest held at VHS this spring. 

Venice Regional’s newly acquired da Vinci® Si™ surgical robot will now be known as “Hawkeye”.  Julie, who is a member of the Venice High School Medical Academy, explained that “Hawkeye from M*A*S*H is a surgeon, and this surgical system provides precision when it comes to surgery.  This device is truly remarkable, like Hawkeye from his time.”

Since its purchase earlier this year, Drs. Mateo Dayo, Christopher Willkomm, Bryan Smith and Matt Ercolani have been performing general, vascular, cardiac and urological procedures using the da Vinci® Si™ surgical robot.

Venice Regional Medical Center, located at 540 The Rialto in Venice, has been providing cutting edge health care since 1951.

Venice Ocala Heart Institute’s Dr. Fong and his wife Sophia sponsor the Venice Symohony.

Nearly 10,000 Americans die each year due to thoracic aortic disease (TAD), a rare and typically undiagnosed condition. It affects nearly 15,000 Americans each year and typically goes undiagnosed due to the lack of symptoms.

However, more and more research is showing the hereditary links of aortic aneurysms and in recent years clinical guidelines have been established by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association that offer recommendations for the diagnosis and management of TAD.

What causes thoracic aortic aneurysms? “Thoracic aortic aneurysms are usually caused by atherosclerosis or the hardening of the arteries caused by plaque that ultimately damages the artery’s walls,” explains Mateo Dayo M.D., a cardiovascular, thoracic and vascular surgeon at the Venice-Ocala Heart Institute in Venice, Fla. “When the wall weakens, the wall abnormally expands or bulges as blood is pumped through it. Eventually, the wall cannot stretch any further and eventually tears or ruptures causing a medical emergency.”

However, it is important to know if a patient has a family history of TAD because recent research indicates that there are hereditary trends with the condition. Preventive screenings are important for these individuals to ensure that early diagnosis is possible to manage the condition and provide treatment while the patient is stable.

Early diagnosis and treatment can save lives Early diagnosis is critical, thoracic aortic aneurysms tend to go unnoticed because nearly half of all patients do not feel any symptoms. Most patients go without feeling any symptoms because the aneurysm goes unseen by the naked eye.

“As with many other heart conditions it is important that patients have an understanding of their family’s medical history, including relatives with unexpected sudden death,” says Jonathan Fong, M.D., a cardiovascular, thoracic and vascular surgeon, also at the Venice-Ocala Heart Institute. “This information is so important to ensure that this condition is detected early and treated to prevent premature death.”

Aortic aneurysms risk factors also include smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and/or heavy alcohol consumption. A patient should honestly discuss these factors and family history to determine their risk of TAD.

Treatment Options Depending on the size and location of the aneurysm, a physician will choose the proper treatment route. If the aneurysm is small and not causing additional problems, it may be monitored for changes on a regular basis through CT or MRI scans. For some patients, high blood pressure medication and/or statins are prescribed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels to maintain the health of the patient’s blood vessels. However for larger aneurysms, surgery is required in order to prevent a rupture and ultimately internal bleeding.

“People with TAD do not have to die prematurely,” says Dayo. “New procedures have been developed that can repair the aorta and allow the patient to lead a normal life post-surgery, however it is essential for the condition to be detected as early as possible.”

The Thomson Reuters 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals is an annual, quantitative study identifying the nation’s best providers of cardiovascular service. Selected from more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals, the winners provide top-notch cardiovascular care. To highlight these true industry leaders, this year only 50 winners were named.

To read more about the study visit: http://100tophospitals.com/top-cardio-hospitals/

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