When a patient has a PFO, or hole in the heart, doctors are left with a decision: to close or not to close. Dr. Alain Bouchard and Dr. Mustafa Ahmed discuss cryptogenic stroke and PFO, as well as the role of the heart-brain team, with Dr. Soo Young Kwon and Dr. Ekaterina Bakradze, both of the neurology department at UAB.
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Thank you for your comments!
I just found and listeened to your podcast on Cryptogenic Strokd and PFO.
I am a PFO closure patient. I had what was detemined to be a TIA stroke in August 2016 at age 65. A bubble test showed that I had a large PFO. I have a very active lifestyle, being very active as a wilderness guide and search and rescue crew leader in NY State. I also am a long time marathon canoe racer, having recently completed several 500 mile and 1000 mile canoe races in the Yukon and Alaska. And for 25 years completing the 90 mile Adirondack canoe race.
After the TIA (with no apparent perment effects), I was placed on Xeralto and told I could not stray more than 2 hours from any medical facility. That is no life for me. Luckily some of my canoeing partners work in the hospital for a well known local cardiac surgeon. In November of 2016, Dr Green at St Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse perfomed a surgical PFO closure, using sutures only, doing so remotely through my ribs, without installing any closure device. At age 70 now, I continue to be very active outdoors, including another Yukon canoe race in 2017 (7 months after pfo closure) and 90 mile Adirondack canoe races in every year since then.
Great story with a great outcome. A PFO closure can not only prevent a subsequent stroke in a patient with a large PFO but like in your case, really improve quality of life!