Margaret Fiore In 1999, was in her mid-50s with a high-powered job—Director of Administration for a New York law firm. Her doctors discovered a calcification of the aortic valve that may have resulted from a childhood bout of rheumatic fever.
Surgeons replaced Margaret's valve and later gave her a pacemaker. But in 2005, she was diagnosed with stenosis of the aorta and her symptoms were so severe she could no longer work.
After consulting with specialists all over the country, Margaret finally met with Drs. Mehmet Oz, Donna Mancini and Ulrich Jorde at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Their verdict: in a few years' time, she would need an LVAD and then a donor heart.
Margaret delayed the LVAD surgery as long as she reasonably could, and in 2009, took "the trip of a lifetime—a 12 day cruise to Europe." On her return, she was so ill she had to be hospitalized.
In March 2010, Dr. Yoshifumi Naka implanted Margaret's LVAD at NewYork-Presbyterian. "I call now myself a lady-in-waiting," she says, "because my device functions as a bridge to transplant."
To her surprise, Margaret started feeling better two weeks after the LVAD implantation. "This was the first time in years," she recalls, "that I could walk, talk and breathe at the same time."
The LVAD team at NYPH gave Margaret the best of care, then prepared her to go home. First they taught her husband, Michael, to change her dressing and then they showed the couple how to manage the LVAD equipment: the controller, charger and battery pack.
Margaret's LVAD:
A Bridge From Heart to Heart