A Happy, Healthy Heart - Cardiac surgery gives Salem great - Grandmother a new lease on life

>> Joanne: I'm Joanne Cunningham. I live in Salem, I've lived here for 50 years. I have 5 children and they all live in Salem. My life is wonderful. >> Dr. McGough: She was complaining of her heart racing, and shortness of breath. >> Joanne: My heart would be racing to the point where it felt like it was coming right out of my chest. >> Dr. McGough: When Joanne came in, she was one of these patients that when she's good, she's very, very good. But when she's bad, she's horrid. And her body did not like atrial fibrillation one little bit. >> Joanne: You can't lie down, you can't sleep. >> Dr. McGough: And as soon as she went into it, she felt terrible. >> Joanne: You can't function. You can't do anything. >> Dr. McGough: When she would go into atrial fibrillation, her rate would go really out of control quickly, and it made her really uncomfortable. As a result, she would have to sometimes come straight to the emergency room. >> Joanne: When I went to see Dr. Katcher he treated it with medication, he monitored it all the time and he always knew when I was in the hospital. It was probably for about 5 years before they decided to do the heart surgery. >> Dr. Toran: The first part is fixing the valve so it doesn't leak anymore. And in her case that was a mitral valve repair. She did not require a replacement of the valve, so she keeps all her own valve tissue, but it works. In the second part of the procedure, it's called a maze procedure. A maze procedure is designed to try to eradicate the irregularity in the heartbeat >> Dr. McGough: One of the reasons that I chose to practice in this community is because I felt that we had all the specialties support that a primary care doctor could ever ask for for their patients. >> Joanne: I am happy to be a local person that doesn't like to travel too far and I think that as a patient, I loved having the fact that Mass General and Salem Hospital were working together. That cardiac unit was unbelievable. >> Dr. Toran: NSMC is a community hospital. The thing that's great, that makes it a great resource for people on the North Shore, is that we can deal with any heart issue that has an impact on a patient here in this community hospital. >> Joanne: I would recommend it for anybody that has to have this that Salem Hospital is absolutely the best place to go. I live a very moderate life but I'm living a life, thank you. That's the best part.