BALTIMORE, Md. (WMAR) — Emmanuel Stamathis thought he met his end.
He had a heart rate over 140 a minute— a dangerous and deadly rhythm.
“I was scared to death, I really thought this was the end of me ya know?”
Stamathis had a heart attack before that resulted in left over scar tissue. Dr. Aditya Saini and his team at Medstar Health immediately jumped into action when he got the hospital.
“We mapped that entire scar and we found a channel of diseased area which seemed to be critical to the heart rhythm problem that he was having,” Dr. Saini said. “Then we delivered ablation lesions of radio frequency energy to the cells in that area and killed those cells by heat essentially.”
Ablation surgery uses plastic tubes and catheters through the groin, vein and arteries to get to the heart.
“It’s amazing that we can perform these procedures without even having to open up the chest, actually be inside the heart of the patient.” said Dr. Saini. “Everything can be done through the groin in a minimally invasive technique.”
A holiday miracle that kept the love of Dorothea's life by her side.
“He’s such a special person to us, the most humble man I know,” said Dorothea Stamathis about Dr. Saini.
Dr. Saini will tell you he was just doing what he was trained to do, but this family will always remember.
“I couldn’t thank him enough I just wanted to keep hugging him ya know? He’s a great guy,” said Stamathis.
