I Feel Like I Have a New Heart

When Dania Blair Schuh, of Gibson Island, felt chest pain she thought it was related to reflux she had experienced in the past. But after a few weeks of feeling pain every morning, she went to the emergency department at nearby Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center (LHAAMC).  

Dania had an electrocardiogram (also called an EKG), which records the electrical signal from your heart to check its rhythm. The EKG went well, but doctors asked her to come back for an echocardiogram. An echocardiogram, or “echo” for short, uses ultrasound waves to produce images of your heart for information on the structure and function. 

Further testing showed a nearly 90% blockage in her left main artery. She needed open-heart surgery. 

“My husband [former Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh] and I were shocked,” Dania says. 

They discussed going to Baltimore for surgery, but decided to have it closer to home at the medical center Dania knows well, having volunteered in the emergency department for a few years. 

Three weeks after her surgery, Dania is able to walk three miles a day. “I feel like I have a new heart,” she says.

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Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center (LHAAMC) recently received the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain  ̶  MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2021. “As a Platinum Performance Award recipient, LHAAMC has established itself as a leader in setting the national standard for improving quality of care in patients with acute myocardial infarction,” said Michael C. Kontos, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Chest Pain – MI Registry Steering Subcommittee, and cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Read more, here.