PATIENT STORY
A SECOND
CHANCE AT
LIFE
P
With the proper diagnosis, treat-
ment and care she needed, Gina
Westhoven is physically able again
to enjoy life and all its simple
pleasures.
erhaps because she was just in her mid-
30s, no one suspected the true cause of
symptoms that Gina Westhoven, of Lodi,
N.J., had been experiencing for months.
She went from specialist to specialist. One diag-
nosed asthma. Another, pneumonia. Her symp-
toms got worse.
“I was scared and confused why no one had an
answer,” Gina says. One winter day, barely able to
breathe and with other alarming symptoms, Gina’s
family doctor, Navpreet Minhas, MD, sent her
directly to the Emergency Department at Chilton
Medical Center.
“They diagnosed me within four hours, when
I had spent four months with specialists trying
to figure it out,” she says. The diagnosis was dis-
comforting. Gina, then 36, had congestive heart
failure (CHF).
Gina knew a bit about heart disease – from her
father, who died of it at age 45 – and from the
patients she saw in her work as an EMT.
“I thought I was going to die in a matter of
days,” Gina says, recalling the fear she felt then.
Gina’s cardiac care had been coordinated
by Martin Tabaksblat, MD; Lawrence Blitz,
MD, of Cardiology Associates of North Jersey;
and Michele Gilbert, APN, a nurse practitioner
with the Heart Success program at Chilton. Dr.
Tabaksblat made the diagnosis and placed her
on all the appropriate cardiac medications while
Heart Success provided education and assistance
with her care.
“Despite the best medical care we gave, Gina
remained quite symptomatic,” says Dr. Tabaksblat.
Dr. Blitz implanted a cardiomems device to help
monitor her heart failure. “Cardiomems is a small
electronic device that is placed in an artery in the
lungs and allows real-time monitoring of the pres-
sures in the heart and lungs,” explains Dr. Blitz.
HOLIDAY 2019 CHILTON MAGAZINE
“This device has been shown to keep patients
with advanced heart failure out of the hospital
because we can detect any decompensation of
their condition very early and act on it.”
Michele Gilbert was in frequent contact with
Gina and monitored her cardiomems. It soon,
became apparent that she needed more than the
traditional heart failure medication and it eventu-
ally became clear that Gina needed to be consid-
ered for heart transplant and they recommended
an LVAD (left ventricular assist device). A wait for
a heart can be long – sometimes a year or more.
To give her that time, they implanted an LVAD.
Attached directly to her heart and to a battery
pack carried on a strap, it would do the pump-
ing work that her damaged heart could not do.
Because Chilton is part of Atlantic Health System,
patients like Gina can be seamlessly referred to
Morristown Medical Center for more advanced
care when it is necessary.
On October 30, 2018, Gina had the surgery at
Morristown Medical Center under the expert care
of Drs. Marc Goldschmidt and James Slater and
Linda Suplicki, RN, MSN, APN, ACNP, CCRN,
coordinator of the LVAD program. It gave her a
second chance at life, she says.
“I can walk again, breathe again,” says Gina,
still amazed at the change. “I can live my life
without everything, from simple daily activities to
my social life, being a struggle.”
“All of my friends and family and my medical
team encouraged me and supported me at every
step,” she says. “They helped make the hardest
decisions a little bit easier and a little less scary.”
Today, Gina is back to work – at a new job, at
Atlantic Health System. She is grateful to her med-
ical team for giving her another “second chance”
at life as she waits for a heart transplant.
Chilton doctors accurately diagnose Gina’s mystery illness,
give her the time she needs to get a heart transplant