As the recent deaths of actors Carrie Fisher and Alan Thicke due to heart events remind us, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in this country, but heart attacks, cardiac arrest and congestive heart failure aren’t the only threats. A Maryland woman had no idea of a heart condition she had until it almost took her life.
Karin Bertozzi of Bethesda seemed like the definition of healthy.
“Always been an athlete, always been fit, never had any high cholesterol, never any high blood pressure,” she said.
A 48-year-old mother of three, she taught 15 yoga classes per week.
“I had taught two yoga classes that morning and I was feeling great and I stopped in to a store to get some lunch … and as soon as I walked into the store, I knew I didn't feel well,” she said. “I felt a little dizzy, maybe a little queasy, and I just knew I was going to faint … and I remember getting down to the floor and then after that I really don't remember anything after that for the next four days.”
She was rushed to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda.
“And I was diagnosed very, very quickly with an ascending aortic aneurysm with dissection,” Bertozzi said.
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The aorta is the largest artery in the body, supplying blood to every single organ, including the spinal cord and the brain. During an aortic dissection, the three layers in the aorta tear.
Dr. Phillip Corcoran operated on Bertozzi for 12 hours.
“It’s an absolutely catastrophic and often fatal disease process in which the arteries which supply the blood flow to the organs can be occluded or be disrupted,” he said.
Since at any point that can lead to a rupture of the aorta, the surgery is a race against time.
Bertozzi also had an aneurysm, which can occur with aortic dissection or sometimes lead to it.
“I was in disbelief,” she said. “Here I was younger and I thought I was fit and I thought I was healthy and I thought I had spent years doing all the right things for my body and I really initially thought I had been in a car accident. It took me awhile to wrap my head around the thought that I had even had emergency open heart surgery.”
Particularly it was shocking because she had no symptoms. Doctors told her the cause was genetic, and after looking into her family history, she discovered her grandfather had died at 52 from exactly what she had.
“We were able to see that there is a family thing going on,” she said. “I had my event in October, and two months late in, December my three older siblings all had had scans.”
Although aortic aneurysms are common, aortic dissection is rare, with roughly 20,000 cases occurring per year and usually in men.
Karin eventually had to get a pacemaker. She does cardiac rehab every day and gives back through Suburban’s Mended Hearts Program, where volunteers offer emotional support to patients in the cardiac ICU.
She wants her use her experience to help others.
“We all know we shouldn't smoke, we all know we should watch our weight, we all know we need to exercise, but for me I feel like I had all those in check,” she said. “There was just this genetic thing.”
Bertozzi also is making sure her children get checked. She no longer does yoga because some positions may put too much pressure on her heart, but she runs, swims and does her cardiac rehab.
