Katie's Cardiology Story
Rare heart condition improved through cardiac ablation procedures
When heart medications for Katie’s arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia weren't working, her doctor recommended catheter ablation procedures, meant to destroy the tissue that was causing bad rhythms in the lower part of her heart.
Originally from New York, Katie and her husband moved to Kentucky for his job. She began seeing Gery Foster Tomassoni, MD, Baptist Health Medical Group Cardiology, who was highly recommended by her previous physician.
“Katie was a patient whom I saw back in 2008 for the first time. She has an extremely rare cardiomyopathy, which occurs in 1 in 5,000 patients. What happens in these situations is that the muscle tissue gets replaced by fat and scar tissue,” says Dr. Tomassoni. “This leads to a weak heart pump, and leads to the possibility of having bad rhythms that can make her heart stop.”
Katie underwent two ablation procedures performed by Dr. Tomassoni, which ablated five different areas causing bad rhythms.
“Ever since then, I have been under control with medication. I think that the ablations were the key to everything. Dr. Tomassoni is an amazing person to me. He is brilliant and skilled, and he's a good man,” she says. “We adopted my son and my heart issue became a big center of focus. Dr. Tomassoni and his staff were incredible to me. He did a three-hour deposition for me. His nurses were so fired up. They were ready to take on the world for me, and that was very special.”
Katie has been a school psychologist for nearly 20 years. When she works with parents, she tells them, you can't raise your child feeling sorry for them if they have a delay or a health condition or something, because that's not going to help them.
“It's the very same truth for yourself. You can't be worried about yourself all the time, that restricts your life, it makes your life very small,” she says. “I am so blessed to have landed where I did, and to have Dr. Tomassoni be less than an hour away. He's an expert, and that I get him for my doctor is pretty amazing.”
“Katie is doing great. She's doing everything she ever wanted to do. I'm so happy we were able to provide this medical care for her. I might be a little biased, but I think that the Baptist system in Kentucky is by far the best in Kentucky, and probably a top in the nation as well,” he says.