Meet Janine
Janine's Story: I am grateful for the life that was given back to me.
An exuberant Janine G. has regained her health — and life — thanks to Lawrence Kanner, MD, Mount Sinai South Nassau's Director of Electrophysiology Services. He and his team are experts diagnosing and correcting problems with heart rhythm.
For over 12 years, Gentile, an elementary school teacher, had been suffering from sudden fainting. The cause: neurocardiogenic syncope, in which blood pressure falls quickly, and blood flow to the brain drops. This caused her to faint. And it greatly affected her life and her ability to work. Heart medicines and a pacemaker helped, but they did not correct the condition completely. Her primary care physician suggested she see Dr. Kanner at Mount Sinai South Nassau. After evaluating her, he recommended something that changed her life: a new, highly advanced pacemaker that did something her previous pacemaker couldn’t do.
Most pacemakers have no way of sensing blood pressure before it drops too low, Dr. Kanner says. So the pacemaker she had implanted earlier made adjustments to her blood pressure too late. "So she continued to black out," he says. "The more advanced BIOTRONIK Evia pacemaker, on the other hand, senses a potential drop in blood pressure before it occurs and adjusts the heart rate earlier. It’s able to raise blood pressure in time to help prevent a blackout."
BIOTRONIK's Evia pacemaker, which is also 20 percent smaller than traditional models, incorporates wireless monitoring and works like a cellphone to send important information to the physician. The physician, in turn, can use the same cellphone-like technology to perform a complete wireless remote checkup.
It has been years since Janine's new pacemaker was implanted. She's back teaching grade school, running 8 miles a week and snow skiing. She was even able to join her husband to hike a volcano in Hawaii.
"I am grateful for the life that was given back to me," she said. “The thought of not being able to teach again was very difficult," she said. "Dr. Kanner's knowledge, compassion and bedside manner are amazing. My life would be very different had I not met him."
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Electrophysiology Laboratory