Methodist Healthcare System | Keeping Well | Winter 2021

4 SAHealth.com “Culligan Man” Ike Garcia has spent his life concerned about the heart palpitations that his doctor said could have taken his life. “For a long time, even when I was younger, I always had little rhythm issues with my heart, little palpitations, especially when I worked a lot. After a real strenuous time, it really bothered me. As I got older, it started getting worse,” he said. Ike tried medications, but felt that they did not fully help. As a sales representative for Culligan of the Texas Hill Country in Kerrville, Texas, he was concerned about something happening to him while he was with clients in the community. He remembers one scary incident at work that really made him consider alternatives to medication. “I was doing a water test at a client’s brand new mobile home,” said Ike. “I crawled underneath the house to check the water lines, and I started having an attack. My heart was palpitating, and I felt dizzy and weak. I thought ‘Lord, don’t let me die underneath this mobile home!’” His cardiologist, Javier Roman-Gonzalez, MD, told Ike about an innovative way of doing an atrial fibrillation ablation with a radiofrequency balloon catheter performed at Methodist Hospital | Texsan. “It’s a new treatment that is showing major success,” said Roman-Gonzalez. “We electrically isolate the pulmonary veins to disrupt the abnormal electrical signal and restore normal rhythm to the heart. We used this novel balloon catheter to deliver radiofrequency pulses quickly and safely in the heart muscle.” A year after the procedure, Ike says he still has the sensation that his heart might start acting up after working in his yard or exercising. “I know that I normally would have felt something, but it doesn’t come,” said Ike. “This has changed my life for the better.” “Culligan Man” credits innovative new treatment for saving his heart Methodist Hospital becomes first facility to implant new pump in patientwith severe heart failure To learn more about the cardiac care at Methodist Hospital, visit SAHealth.com/specialties/cardiology?location=methodist-hospital . “ This has changed my life for the better.” —Ike Garcia KEEPINGWELL —WINTER 2021 Methodist Hospital is the first facility in the nation to implant a newly designed cardiac mechanical pump, EVAHEART®2, on a patient with severe heart failure on the COMPETENCE Trial. The implant was performed by Masahiro Ono, MD, heart transplant surgeon, and Michael Kwan, MD, advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist. This milestone procedure was part of a multi-center clinical trial for the evaluation of a left ventricular assist device (VAD). The COMPETENCE Trial will include 40 VAD clinical sites with 399 patients enrolled through 2022. “Although we are always happy to see how well the individual patient does with LVAD therapy, the opportunity to contribute to a much larger population by being among the very first in the country to use a new LVAD technology is truly exciting and puts Methodist at the very forefront of LVAD therapy,” commented Kwan. Caution: The EVAHEART 2 is an Investigational Device limited by US FDA to Investigational Use only.

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