WORCESTER, Mass. - A Worcester woman is saying thank you this Valentine's Day after she says a new advanced treatment at a local hospital saved her heart.
"Imagine drinking too much coffee and you just can't relax," said Chrissy Gaffney. "That's how I was 24/7."
Born with a congenital heart defect, Gaffney has had more than her fair share of run ins with her heart. But it was a bout of COVID-19 last year which made the 58-year-old feel like her heart was literally going to jump out of her chest.
What You Need To Know
- UMass Memorial Medical Center became the first commercial center in the Northeast to offer pulsed field ablation last year.
- Chrissy Gaffney, who has experienced multiple bouts with AFib over the past six years, says her heart has improved drastically since getting the procedure.
- Gaffney was born with a congenital heart defect, and her condition worsened last year after a bout with COVID-19.
- Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal says PFA is safer as there is less risk of damaging surrounding tissues, takes less time, and the lesions are durable, reducing the need for touch up procedures.
"I could not relax," Gaffney said. "I was shaking like crazy; I was very anxious. It was difficult."
Chrissy was living with atrial fibrillation, also called a-fib, where the heart beats irregularly and rapidly.
But a new treatment, called pulsed field ablation, helped regulate her heartbeat. UMass Memorial Medical Center became the first commercial center in the northeast to offer pulsed field ablation last year.
"We access three veins in the patients groin, their femoral veins, and through those veins we put three specific catheters into the heart itself," said Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, the hospital's director of Electrophysiology and Pacing.
Dr. Rosenthal was the one who performed the procedure on Chrissy. He says the procedure is now a daily occurrence at the hospital.
Since undergoing PFA, Chrissy says the anxiety is gone and she's now back to work for the first time in five months.
"I can go on with my life and be happy, take care of other things, and not have to worry about my heart," Chrissy said.
February is American Heart Month. Per the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, heart disease is the country's leading cause of death.
Both Chrissy and Dr. Rosenthal urge people to keep up on their heart health, whether it's watching what you eat, exercising more, or quitting smoking.
"We need to measure blood pressures, check cholesterol," Rosenthal said. "Things can be done by primary care physicians."
"The big message is if something doesn't feel right, follow up with your doctor," Chrissy said. "Don't be afraid."