Mending hearts, shaping futures
José Fernandez, an athletic high school senior, towers over most of the young patients in the lobby of Children’s Memorial Outpatient Center, where he has returned to see his cardiologist, Barbara J. Deal, MD, head of the Division of Cardiology. José and Deal have a special rapport. During his visit, they talk as much about José’s academics as they do about his health. Deal asks about his college applications, and shows a special interest in his future plans — perhaps because she helped make that future possible. Etched in Deal’s memory is the long night that she and many other specialists worked to save his young life.
Sudden heart failure
It was Labor Day when José, then 14, went into sudden heart failure, triggered by tachycardia, or an abnormally fast heart rhythm. He was a healthy adolescent when the arrhythmia occurred, producing acute congestive heart failure. As the teenager struggled to breathe, his parents, José Sr. and Elisa, grew terrified that they might lose their son.
José was transferred from his local hospital to Children’s Memorial, where he would be treated by one of best pediatric heart arrhythmia teams in the world.
As José’s condition steadily worsened, Deal and her colleagues determined that an artificial heart was needed. This complex procedure requires multiple teams of specialists, most of whom had to be called in because of the time of day and the holiday.
“By 3 a.m. there were at least 17 specialists in the operating room. That’s the kind of commitment this team is known for,” says Deal.
Read Dr. Deal's
essay about her most rewarding moments as a physician.
Deal, in consultation with her surgical colleagues, opted to electronically “map” José’s heart to locate the source of his tachycardia so that surgeons could remove the abnormal tissue causing the problem. Following the procedure, they then faced the dilemma of whether to implant the artificial heart, which carried significant risks.
“If we’d been successful in completely removing the source of the arrhythmia, which we couldn’t know at that point, José wouldn’t need the artificial heart, says Deal. “But if we were wrong, he could have died without it.”
Ultimately, they did not insert the artificial heart, which proved to be the right decision. José was well enough to return home just a week later — with a healthier heart and a good prognosis for a life with few restrictions.