🫀𝗔 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗱: 𝗞𝗛𝗦𝗖 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗰 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿
Diane Smith-Merrill’s life changed in a moment. After arriving in the Emergency Department following a heart attack, her condition quickly worsened when her heart valve ruptured.
As blood leaked into her lungs, she became far too weak to survive open-heart surgery. Every moment counted as her life hung in the balance.
That’s when a dream team—cardiac surgeon Dr. Carolyn Teng and interventional cardiologist Dr. Wael Abuzeid—stepped in with a bold, innovative solution.
Quickly, a team of cardiac experts was pulled together to perform KHSC’s first-ever emergency mitral clip repair, guiding a tiny clip through a vein in Diane’s leg and into her heart to stop the leak.
Within minutes, her body began to recover. “One moment I was near death; within half an hour, I was alive again,” Diane says. Today, she’s back home, back to work, and walking up to 3 kilometers every day.
This milestone isn’t just about one procedure—it’s proof of what’s possible at KHSC. Our cardiac program is a flagship service for the entire region and among the most advanced in Ontario, caring for patients from across southeastern Ontario with innovation, skill, and compassion.
Diane is alive and thriving today because of the extraordinary people who make up KHSC’s cardiac team and the innovative approaches to care that take place every day at
#myKHSC.
Read Diane's remarkable story and learn how you can support KHSC's regional cardiac program:
kingstonhsc.ca/cardiac-care/…
#CardiacCare #MitralClip #InterventionalCardiology #CardiacSurgery #InnovativeCare #YGK #KingstonOntario #OnHealth @OntHospitalAssn @OntarioHealthOH