Wanda Stovall had been living an active, energetic life for most of her 88 years.
A
resident of Fort Worth, she earned her college degree in speech
pathology, then changed careers and owned a car upholstery supply
company for 10 years. Then, she owned an aircraft repair business for
another 20 years. For decades, she volunteered as a docent at the
Kimball Art Museum.
But about five years ago, Stovall began
feeling unwell. She received a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation, an
abnormal heart rhythm that causes the chambers of the heart to beat
irregularly and rapidly.
“I had to go to the hospital several
times for my shortness of breath, and they gave me several ablations in
the hope of getting my heart back to normal rhythm, but it only had
short-term effects,” Stovall said. “They ended up diagnosing me
with congestive heart failure and putting in a pacemaker, but I still
hadn’t been feeling well. It corrected my heart rhythm, but I was always
tired. They treated me with medication and watched me carefully, but I
was so tired all the time, I couldn’t do much of anything and almost
gave up. I hardly ever left my house anymore.”
She spent her days sitting on the sofa with no energy to complete any of her
usual activities and going to bed at 8 p.m. because she was just too
tired to stay up any later.
“This wasn’t how I used to be, but I thought, this is just the way
it is going to be from now on,” she said.
Her husband David, a
certified public accountant, knew of a cardiologist at the University of
Texas Medical Branch through one of his friends and clients, and
insisted that she make an appointment with him.
“We went to see Dr. Hani Jneid at UTMB and it was the best thing we
could have possibly done,” she said.
Jneid is a Professor of
Medicine and Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at UTMB,
where he also serves as the Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Line
and is the John Sealy Distinguished Centennial Chair in
Cardiology. Jneid took over Stovall’s care and discovered several
serious blockages in the coronary arteries surrounding her heart. She
said he inserted stents in two major arteries to repair the damage from
the blockages. She started feeling stronger day by day.
“Her
presentation was not the most typical anginal symptoms you would expect
to see in younger patients," Jneid said. "Hers was a progressive loss of functional
capacity with more shortness of breath and tiredness. We started with a non-invasive cardiac workup, including a stress test.
The results suggested the blockages, so we went to cardiac catheterization, angioplasty and stenting procedures, which are invasive
procedures. The challenges were in her high-risk status, driven not
only by her age and difficult coronary anatomy, but also by her
co-morbidities, including weak heart, advanced kidney disease and poor
blood pressure control.”
Then, Jneid said Stovall endured
high-risk procedures to fix all her blocked arteries, including a
widow-maker artery supplying the front wall of the heart, but this was
complemented by medical treatments and follow-ups for her heart failure,
kidney disease and hypertension.
“It was all serious,” he said.
“We went after her blockages, and we worked with her as an outpatient to
improve her heart function and prevent kidney damage before and after
the procedure. We fixed her arteries, and she’s now in cardiac rehab,
feeling much better and increasing her physical activity.”
Wanda
said she is now able to walk on the treadmill several times a day and
gaining back progressively her energy and physical activity.
“I
think sometimes doctors are reluctant to do certain things with patients
who are a certain age,” she said. “But Dr. Jneid was very careful with
me. I was tested several times and was very thorough. I was examined
extensively, and I think he realized that otherwise I was in good
overall health for being 88 and went ahead with the procedure. It has
restored me.”
Jneid said that sometimes doctors underestimate
symptoms of patients, especially older ones, in order to avoid
the risks involved in completing necessary workups or performing
certain needed procedures.
“As long as there are competent
cardiologists and proceduralists who can do these advanced procedures
safely and have the right skills and knowledge, there should be no
hesitation whatsoever to treat older patients,” Jneid said.
“Older
patients often benefit more than younger ones, and they should be able
to undergo procedures safely and effectively in the right hands and the
right setting,” he continued. “Medications must also be fine-tuned and
it’s really an approach of shared decision-making with the family along
with continuous meticulous follow-up.”
Good medical management, including diligent follow-ups, were critical, Jneid added.
“At
UTMB, we practice in an academic setting," Jneid said "We do research, embrace
innovation, and provide cutting-edge clinical care, informing clinical
care through research, and training the future generation of
cardiologists."
Stovalls’ grandson Blake Schooler, who lives close to his grandparents, said he’s observed a major transformation in her.
“Now,
she wants to do things as before, like go out to lunch, go to sporting
events, and get her nails done. She hadn’t been able to do any of these
things for the last two years,” he said. “She’d been such an active
person. She’d been involved in all kinds of clubs and social events in
Fort Worth and had given it all up. She’s completely changed now.”
The Stovalls are now looking forward to returning to their favorite activity—boating on the East Coast.
“We
are going to get a clean bill of health and go back to boating in
Newport, Rhode Island,” said David Stovall. “She’s a completely
different person now. It’s really a miracle, what’s happened.”