Valentine’s Day means saving lives

Patients thank the doctors who ‘fixed their broken hearts’

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Jessica Arnone, 23, of Merrick, came home from a work trip with a severe case of the flu. The infection reached her heart and led to myocarditis, an inflammation of the muscle that suppresses its ability to pump blood. After an echocardiogram at South Nassau Hospital revealed that Arnone’s heart function was below 10 percent, she was immediately sent to St. Francis Hospital Heart Center.

“I still wasn’t actually completely sure what was going on with me,” she said, and described being sent to a catherization laboratory where her doctors struggled to take her blood pressure because her pulse was so slow. “ “I leaned over and moaned, ‘does this really need to happen now?’ ”

During a press conference on Feb. 14 at the hospital, Arnone made a point to thank Melissa Gallant, a nurse at the hospital, for holding her hand while her and her fellow doctors figured out what they were going to do. Dr. George Petrossian, the hospital’s director of interventional cardiac procedures, made the decision to put a needle through her chest and extract the fluid that blocked her heart from beating.

Joe Arnone said that he and his wife did not meet Dr. Petrossian until the procedure was complete. “He came out, introduced himself, and said, ‘we saved her,’ ” Joe added. “I cannot even express how that felt.”

Bernice Ulanoff, 91, of Roslyn, was in desperate need of open-heart surgery, but, due to her fragile health, the procedure would kill her. Doctors at St. Francis performed an alternate operation that saved her life. Dr. Neil R. Bercow and Dr. Matthew Henry explained at the press conference how this procedure, known as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, involves sending a tube through a patient’s body as opposed to cutting it open. Ulanoff gave her doctors flowers and chocolate to say thank you.

“I’m 91,” Ulanoff said. “I’m functioning, I’m breathing and I’ve got my best friend here who also happens to be my husband.”Ulanoff and her husband, Stan, will be celebrating their 70th anniversary this year.