Thankful for the Heart Care Team at Northwest Health: A Patient’s Story
8/3/2023
A native of Romania, Maria Teletin was having a delightful vacation visiting her nephew and family in Knox, Indiana. At 64, she was active, full of life and enjoyed playing with her nephew’s children and working in their garden. That was until, almost overnight, she started to feel overly fatigued and short of breath.
“We knew something was very wrong when my aunt started having difficulty breathing,” said Dennis Briciu, Maria’s nephew. That’s when Dennis knew his aunt needed medical attention, and urged a very frightened Maria to go to the emergency department at Northwest Health – Starke.
“My aunt does not speak English, so my mom (her sister) and my wife stayed with her to interpret and best explain her care,” said Dennis.
There Maria was stabilized then transferred to Northwest Health – La Porte for more advanced cardiac testing and care. At La Porte, Maria was seen by an interventional cardiologist with Northwest Medical Group - cardiology who diagnosed her with heart failure and severe aortic stenosis, a condition that had caused her heart valve to narrow and reduce normal blood flow.
Her cardiologist shared his findings with the Northwest Health team of heart specialists and it was determined that the best treatment option for Maria would be transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive heart valve replacement procedure to restore function and improve blood flow.
TAVR is an alternative to conventional open-heart aortic valve surgery. Because it’s minimally invasive, patients who undergo TAVR can expect a smaller incision, shorter hospital stay, and faster recovery over open-heart surgery.
Maria was transferred to Northwest Health – Porter in nearby Valparaiso where cardiologists performed the procedure.
Dennis is happy to say that his aunt felt so much better almost immediately after her valve replacement and is so grateful to Northwest Medical Group - Cardiology and the entire cardiac team for their outstanding, compassionate care.
“My aunt can’t stop singing the praises of Northwest Health,” shared Dennis. “She tells everyone ‘they were a huge blessing from God’ and is so happy that she feels well again and could return home to Romania as planned.”
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