My name is Tom Cassidy I will be checking in to the Mayo Clinic on Monday the 16th in Rochester, Minnesota. I am scheduled to have the septal myectomy on Friday morning at St. Mary's Hospital performed by Dr Hartzel Schaff.
I am a 52 year old who lives in Delaware and work in Pennsylvania and have had complications my entire life. Been in and out of the hospital since my twenties, always running into a Doctor or Surgeon or somebody that said they could fix me. Over the years every other month your meds are changed your doctors change, but what never changed was the symptoms.
Started out with always feeling out of shape . I played every sport imaginable through High School and entered the Marine Corps at 17 years old. Again I just kept working through it . Over the years it seemed to get worse and turned into passing out. Blood flow was heavily restricted.
Over the last 20 years I've broken ribs, ankle, finger, elbow and nose all from this condition. Walking up steps, standing up taking two steps and passing out. Some of you remember the 5k...lol
So I got referred to John Hopkins 5 years ago that was the first time I was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM). (
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/hypertrophic-cardiomyopathy-hcm/?tab=discussions).
Again numerous testing and that is when I had a Defibulator / Pacemaker...... (saved my life).
For further advice and recommendations I was referred to a cardiology specialist at University of Penn. Dr Suzane Brozena. She changed my drive to get better. She got me in front of the right doctors. First Dr. Howard Hermann. Back in January he performed an alcohol ablation on my heart. (I know me and more alcohol.) I spent five days in intensive care where my heart stopped 3 different times. Needless to say the alcohol ablation didn't work.
So Dr. Hermann from University of Penn referred me to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to world renowned Dr. Hartzell Schaff (he trained the doctors at Penn for this surgery) and that's where I'll be next week.
Tom Cassidy
Delaware heading to Minnesota.
