GAINING CLOSURE.Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard CORRECTION (ran 11/9/2004): The name of James Olson James Olson may refer to:
On a night in the summer of 2003, one or more blood clots Blood Clots Definition A blood clot is a thickened mass in the blood formed by tiny substances called platelets. Clots form to stop bleeding, such as at the site of cut. sneaked through a tiny hole in Cathy Maedl's heart, passing from the right atrium to the left, and from there, to her brain. She awoke about 3 a.m. Aug. 12 at her Eugene home, disoriented dis·o·ri·ent tr.v. dis·o·ri·ent·ed, dis·o·ri·ent·ing, dis·o·ri·ents To cause (a person, for example) to experience disorientation. Adj. 1. and unsure where she was. She said something to her dog, Benji, but the words didn't sound right: She was mumbling mum·ble v. mum·bled, mum·bling, mum·bles v.tr. 1. To utter indistinctly by lowering the voice or partially closing the mouth: mumbled an insincere apology. . "I wasn't quite right," she said. "I knew I was having a stroke." Last week, Maedl spent a day at Sacred Heart Medical Center Sacred Heart Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
"I'm feeling great," Maedl said, 54, three days after the procedure. "It's just amazing how quickly I recovered from this." The device now inside her heart represents a new, less invasive and more effective way to treat a heart defect that causes upward of more than; above. See also: Upward 100,000 strokes a year and may be a source of chronic migraines as well. Several companies are developing these devices. A Boston company called NMT Medical makes the device used on Maedl, called Cardio Seal, as well as a next generation version, called StarFlex. Both are commercially available in Europe; the StarFlex is now undergoing a clinical trial in the United States. The company is hopeful the device will win approval from the Food and Drug Administration within three years. About 700,000 strokes occur each year in the United States, and more than one-third are unexplained, said James Olsen, western regional manager for Boston-based NMT Medical. By conservative estimates, the StarFlex could help 150,000 of those stroke victims, plus an unknown number of migraine sufferers, he said. A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked or interrupted. Major strokes can be deadly or debilitating de·bil·i·tat·ing adj. Causing a loss of strength or energy. Debilitating Weakening, or reducing the strength of. Mentioned in: Stress Reduction , while smaller strokes, sometimes called ministrokes, can cause memory loss and other cognitive problems. Some strokes occur as they did with Maedl: Clots pass through a hole in the heart, a defect that affects one in five people. Everyone is born with a small flap in the septum septum /sep·tum/ (sep´tum) pl. sep´ta [L.] a dividing wall or partition. alveolar septum interalveolar s. between the right and left atria Atria The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body's main pumps. of the heart; but for some that flap valve never closes permanently. Sometimes when those people strain, as when they cough or sneeze sneeze, involuntary violent expiration of air through the nose and mouth. It results from stimulation of the nervous system in the nose, causing sudden contraction of the muscles of expiration. , the pressure inside their heart changes and the flap opens, allowing blood to flow from one side of the heart to the other. Currently, people who suffer strokes because of this defect have two choices for treatment: a lifetime regimen of blood thinners, which have side effects Side effects Effects of a proposed project on other parts of the firm. , or open heart surgery, a risky, costly operation with a lengthy recovery. "It's a big surgery for a little repair," said Lau, the Eugene cardiologist. Lau become interested in these new devices when he attended a one-day course at Swedish Medical Center
Swedish Medical Center is a large nonprofit health care provider located in Seattle, Washington. in Seattle, and started doing the procedure about a year ago. One of two Oregon doctors working with the device, he's now looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. patients to enroll in the StarFlex trial, called Closure I. StarFlex is commercially available in Europe, but has not yet been approved in the United States. Lau said he has no financial stake in the StarFlex. Maedl doesn't qualify for the StarFlex trial because her stroke occurred more than six months ago. But she did qualify for the CardioSeal, an earlier generation of the StarFlex, under an FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. rule called the Humanitarian Device Exemption, even though its effectiveness has not been proven. She showed up at Sacred Heart on Tuesday, the third patient Lau had scheduled to get the device that day. Lau began by making two quarter-inch incisions next to her groin to get access to a large vein that leads to the heart. Into one, he threaded an ultrasound probe that would provide him with three-dimensional images of her heart. Into the other, he threaded a catheter, a hollow tube, into her vein and into her heart. Lau's first task was to slide a wire into the catheter and through the flap between the two upper chambers of her heart. In Maedl's case, this proved to be trickier task than usual. The hole in her heart is about the diameter of a tip of a pencil, and Lau was trying to thread a wire through while looking at a two-dimensional X-ray of her heart as well as the ultrasound. This went on for nearly an hour until finally he got the wire through the hole. "That's one of the hardest ones I've seen," said Olsen, the NMT representative, who was standing by. Once the catheter was through the hole, Lau withdrew the wire and inserted another to which the CardioSeal was attached. The CardioSeal, as well as the StarFlex, has two opposing, collapsible umbrella-type devices, each about the size of a nickel, with surgical mesh fabric stretched across a metal framework. As the device goes through the catheter, the umbrellas are collapsed. Once the first umbrella goes through the hole in the heart, the umbrellas open on either side of the hole. In three to six months, heart tissue will grow over the umbrellas, keeping it in place. Maedl said she's hopeful the procedure will put an end to the seizures and chronic migraines she began suffering since her stroke. Those symptoms caused her to lose her job as a vocational rehabilitation counselor vocational rehabilitation counselor, n term coined in the 1960s and 1970s for a professional who incorporates the best of psychology, social work, and nursing in an attempt to integrate psychology with traditional rehabilitation protocols. , where she helped people with brain injuries get back to work. Her goals, for now, are modest. She wants to continue with the cognitive and speech therapy she's been getting. At some point, she said, she'd like to get involved in some volunteer work. She's grateful the hole in heart is patched. "It should eliminate any further risk of stroke for me," she said. CAPTION(S): Dr. Samuel Lau concentrates on an ultrasound image of Cathy Maedl's heart during surgery Tuesday to place a CardioSeal through the flap between the two upper chambers of her heart. Cathy Maedl is examined by cardiologist Dr. Samuel Lau before he performs surgery to insert a device that will repair a hole in her heart. |
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