About Me (In My Own Words)
Hi
My name is Gene Bank and I am 54 years old. I live in Bridgewater NH with my partner Bob of 17 years. I have never had heart problems untill this past year. 11 months ago I started having heart palpatations. I talked to my doctor and he referred me to a cardiologist. I was given a stress test and echo and I did fine on the stress test. The echo showed that I did have a heart murmor called Mitral Valve Prolapse. It was graded mild to moderate and the cardiologist said many people have mild prolapse and we will just moniter it. As the year progressed the heart palpatations continued but the cardiologist said they were benign PVC's and PAC's and not to worry. This past October I was hiking with friends and felt some of these and then passed out. After an ER visit I was sent to the New England Heart Institute where I had a EP study of my heart. They induced A Fib and that was my diagnosis. I was put on an aspirin a day and was told to come back in 6 months. The palpatations continued however and in fact got worse. I called my doctor and asked for another appointment. At that appointment I asked for another stress test, something was just not right! He agreed to the test. This time the echo showed that the prolapse was much worse. It had gone from mild/moderate to severe in 6 months. A TEE test the next week confirmed this and I left with the news that I needed immediate open heart surgery. Wow! What a shocker.
My brother is a cardiac anesthesiologist at IONVA Fairfax outside Washington DC. He has a colleague who seems to be a great cardiac surgeon Dr Paul Massimiano. I have decided to have Dr Massimiano perform my surgery and the date has been set for January 12, 2011
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
Bridgewater, New Hampshire