- Women's Health, Heart Care, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogThere seemed to be nothing special about Saturday, June 16, 2012, when Annapolis High School art teacher Ana Duhon and her mother went out shopping for a Father’s Day gift. Until Ana passed out. When her mother couldn’t awaken her 35-year-old daughter, she called 911. Ana’s heart had suddenly gone into ventricular fibrillation, a quivering rhythm in which no blood is pumped from the heart. Her brain was starving for oxygen, she was in cardiac arrest and without immediate treatment she would die. Paramedics performed CPR and shocked her heart, but her rhythm remained erratic. When she arrived at AAMC, her heart was pumping only approximately 15 percent of the blood it normally should. Interventional cardiologist Scott Katzen, MD, ruled out a coronary blockage—something he could have fixed immediately in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab. He knew he needed to do something fast. “We decided to perform therapeutic hypothermia in which we cool the body down to slow the metabolism,” said Dr. Katzen. “Studies show that when proper circulation returns to the body, recovery can be improved if you can slow the metabolism of the brain and all the organs.” Intensivist Sjoerd Beck, MD, cooled Ana’s body temperature with a specialized cooling blanket available at AAMC until doctors were able to return her heart rhythm to normal. As doctors gradually re-warmed Ana’s core temperature, her body was able to recover, and her life is returning to normal. It’s still unclear why Ana’s heart failed, but fortunately, the cardiac care and therapeutic hypothermia she received saved her heart, her brain and all of her vital organs. “I feel lucky to be here,” Ana said. “To spend time with my four-year-old son, to be raising him, and to be able to teach again.” Watch a video to learn more about Ana’s story.
- Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogBy the time Joan MacLean met AAMC neurosurgeon Gary Dix, MD, she had been relying on a wheel chair for two years. The 74-year-old Annapolis resident has severe degenerative disc disease of the spine. She had already gone through a number of spinal fusions to stabilize her back, but as the disease progressed, her condition became debilitating. “The pain and weakness in my back and legs got so bad I couldn’t walk,” she says. “More than a block, and I just couldn’t do it.” Joan had developed sacroiliitis, an instability of the sacroiliac joint in the pelvis where the sacrum and the iliac bones meet. This joint is supposed be immobile, but Joan’s had been moving ever so slightly causing inflammation and severe pain. In the past, her only option for relief would have been another major back surgery. Doctors would have had to make a large incision, remove bone and tissue from the joint space. Then, after filling the space with graft material they would have had to install metal screws to immobilize the bones. Fortunately for Joan, Dr. Dix was able to offer her a minimally invasive, cutting edge procedure that very few hospitals in the country offer. The iFuse implant system relies on small titanium dowels inserted into the joint space to prevent the bones from moving. There is no need to cut into the bone, and there are no screws. “Once the joint is immobilized,” Dr. Dix says, “bone grows across the joint space which helps to further stabilize it and prevent painful motion.” The entire procedure is done through a small incision in the back. Last April, Joan had the iFuse procedure on her left side and it turned her life around. “It was the best thing I could have done,” she says. “We went on a cruise in January, and I walked ten miles around the ship.” This February, she repeated the procedure on the other side. “I couldn’t wait to get this done.” She says. “I’m so glad they do this here.” AAMC remains one of only a handful of hospitals in the area with the technology and experienced medical staff to offer this innovative procedure.
- News & Press Releases, Women's Health, Pediatrics, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogThe first thing most people learn about parenthood is that plans have to be flexible. So it was fitting that the new Hackerman-Patz House would open four days early to provide a young family the temporary home they needed when their little girl was born premature. Lucinda Avis was running errands near her home in Solomons, Maryland when she went into labor. She was two months early. Though she had closer options, she drove the hour and a half to AAMC because she wanted the quality medical care she knew the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) could provide. But an hour and a half is a long way from home. Her new daughter Audrey was born healthy, but she required medical support until gaining her strength. For her husband and 20-month-old son, this could have meant a lengthy stay in a hotel room or a daily drive back and forth from Solomons to visit Lucinda and the baby. But the Hackerman-Patz House offered them a better option. A home away from home, the Hackerman-Patz House provides affordable accommodations to patients and their families right on the AAMC campus. “It’s a huge benefit that we can all be here together,” says Lucinda. “I can sleep with my family and be right here near the hospital.” The 20 rooms share a common sitting room, kitchenette and playroom, so families have space to relax and recuperate. “My husband was here yesterday for four hours with our toddler,” she says, “and they didn’t have to just stay in our room all day, because there’s all this other space.” When Lucinda arrived at AAMC, The Hackerman-Patz House was still days away from opening. But she and her family needed to be together, and to be close to little Audrey. So staff opened their doors and welcomed the Avis’s. “I really feel like they’ve gone above and beyond what they needed to do. It’s just been more than what was expected.” With the help of the Hackerman-Patz House, Lucinda and her family were able to focus on welcoming their new daughter and celebrating her arrival.
- Community, Men's Health, Women's Health, Heart Care, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogFor patients without a primary care doctor, answers to medical questions can be hard to come by. Often it’s easier to ignore a health issue, hoping it will go away, than it is to seek treatment. Fortunately, 55-year-old Donald Agee discovered the Community Health Center before it cost him his leg. He visited the clinic July 2011 with numbness in his right toes, dizziness and blurred vision. A long history of smoking and high blood pressure led the doctors to run some tests on Donald’s heart. The results concerned them, and they referred Donald to the cardiology department at AAMC. It was a timely call because cardiologists discovered a weakness in Donald’s heart and narrowing of the arteries in his right leg. Without treatment, his leg would have become severely damaged from lack of blood flow. In situations like this, patients who wait eventually require amputation to save their lives. Doctors put two stents in to open and shore up the damaged arteries and restore circulation. Donald said he felt better immediately, and is thankful the community health center was there when he needed it. “If I hadn’t of gone to the clinic, I would have lost my leg,” he said.
- Men's Health, Women's Health, Heart Care, Patient StoriesGeneral Page Tier 3BlogThe traditional approach to angioplasty, a medical procedure in which cardiologists clear blockages in coronary arteries, involves inserting a catheter into the patient’s femoral artery, a very large blood vessel buried at the groin deep in a patient’s leg. Now cardiologists at AAMC have another route to restore blood flow to the heart muscle—through the wrist. It’s called radial artery angioplasty and is especially beneficial to patients like Jim Smith, 68, of Centreville, MD. He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance after suffering a heart attack. Doctors on the Eastern Shore had sent him across the Bay Bridge to AAMC where nurses, technicians and cardiologists were waiting for him in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab. The Cath Lab team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to save the lives of heart attack patients. For Jim who had already had a deep vein thrombosis removed from his leg, catheterization through the femoral artery posed a slightly higher risk of complications. Fortunately, interventional cardiologist Scott Katzen, MD, was able to offer a newer, safer route to Jim’s heart—catheterization at the wrist, the radial artery. “The radial artery approach has a lower risk of bleeding complications,” said Dr. Katzen who has performed hundreds of radial artery catheterizations. “It’s more comfortable for the patients, and they literally can be in bed sitting up eating their lunch a half hour after the procedure.” After a femoral artery catheterization, patients must lay flat for several hours. By inserting the catheter, a long and narrow tube, into the radial artery and threading it up to a patient’s heart, Dr. Katzen cleared the blockage. The catheter has a tiny balloon inside which is deployed to open the clot. In some cases, cardiologists also may insert and leave a stent to keep an artery open. A stent is a small narrow metal mesh tube-like device. Since September 2012, Dr. Katzen has been performing radial artery catheterizations regularly at AAMC, and patients like Jim have been impressed with how easy it was to go through. “It was amazing. There was no pain involved at all,” said Jim. “It was just like having blood drawn except that instead of drawing blood they put a catheter in there.” The day after his heart attack, Jim was back at home. “The procedure was just so smooth and easy,” he said, “There were no after effects or any recovery time, it was really great.”
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