Shining Stars Spring 2012 : Page 1

A Message from Our Physician-in-Chief Dear Colleagues and Friends, Welcome to this installment of Shining Stars in which we highlight the unique combination of services that has made Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center such an important part of the healthcare system in our region. As you will read, whether dealing with intricate pediatric cardiovascular problems or delicate gastrointestinal surgery in the tiniest babies, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital’s physicians and staff provide clinical expertise in specialized care that is unavailable anywhere else in the 5,000 square mile area we serve. At the same time, our specialists are also skilled in helping families focus on medical and lifestyle factors that inﬂ uence their children’s health as they grow in order to prevent heart and liver and other chronic problems that can plague them in adulthood. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital’s doctors and staff therefore cover the entire spectrum of children’s healthcare specialties in available modern medicine—providing both technologically complex medical services for acute life threatening disorders as well as fundamental preventative care to forestall chronic medical problems down the road. Michael Gewitz, M.D. Physician-in-Chief Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center As always, we thank you, our donors, our colleagues, and our families whose support gives us continued opportunities to provide the broad range of specialized care we deliver. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or feedback about any of the articles or services mentioned in this magazine—or about Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center in general. We look forward to hearing from you. Wishing you many healthy opportunities to enjoy the beauties of our region in the Springtime. Sincerely, Michael Gewitz, MD Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center is the only all-specialty children’s hospital in the Hudson Valley region of New York and Fairﬁ eld County, Connecticut. It is a local and national leader in pediatric care and an advocate for children’s health and wellness. For more information about Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, please visit www.westchestermedicalcenter.com/mfch To ﬁ nd a physician, visit the website or call 1-877-WMC-DOCS. Westchester County Health Care Corporation Board of Directors Michael D. Israel, President and Chief Executive Ofﬁ cer Ofﬁ cer s Mark S. Tulis, Esq., Chair Mitchell C. Hochberg, First Vice Chair Claudia L. Edwards, Ph.D., Vice Chair Zubeen Shroff, Vice Chair Emmeline Rocha-Sinha, Treasurer Susan G. Gevertz, Secretary Directors Orlando G. Adamson, M.D. William H. Frishman, M.D. Renee E. Garrick, M.D. Herman S. Geist John F. Heimerdinger Michael D. Israel Patrick J. McCoy Alfredo S. Quintero Stephen Rogowsky John R. Spicer Michael S. Staib James Vodola Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center Michael Gewitz, M.D., Physician-in-Chief Linda Hurwitz, R.N., Vice President, Patient Care Services Helen O’Donnell, Vice President, Professional Services Published by Westchester Medical Center Department of Marketing and Corporate Communications 100 Woods Road, Valhalla, NY 10595 914-493-8024 Kara Bennorth, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Fund Development Andy LaGuardia, Director of Communications, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital Mario D. Smith, Communications Manager Benjamin Cotten, Digital Imaging Kate McDermott, Staff Writer Jeri Froehlich, Graphic Design The information in this publication is written by professional journalists and/or physicians. However, no publication can replace the direct care or advice of medical professionals and readers are cautioned to seek such help for personal problems. 1 Shining Stars

After Heart Procedure, a Football Star is Born

Vincent Smith remembers clearly the fi rst time someone commented on his son’s speed. “I’ll never forget it,” he says. “It was during a fi eld day in elementary school. The mother of another student said to me, ‘He runs like the wind.’ Well, I bet you I’ve heard that phrase 1,000 times since.” If nothing else, he heard it most during the 2011 football season, when his son Saxon Smith ran up a record-breaking senior season for the Chester Academy football team, rushing for 3,057 yards and 49 touchdowns on the way to the state championship game. As only the fourth player in state history to rush for more than 3,000 yards in a single season, Saxon was named Varsity845 Player of the Year by the Times Herald-Record newspaper and was tabbed the Class D Co-Player of the Year by the New York State High School Football Coaches Association. Ironically, however, just a year earlier, Saxon wondered if he’d ever play football again. It turns out the only thing that could run as fast as Saxon was his heart. When Saxon was 6 months old, his pediatrician diagnosed him with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). People with WPW are born with an extra connection in the heart, called an accessory pathway, which allows electrical signals to bypass a cluster of cells called the atrioventricular (AV) node. This can trigger a condition called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which causes an extremely rapid heart rate, sometimes up to 260 beats per minute (a normal heart rate is less than 100 beats per minute). In rare cases, arrhythmias associated with WPW can lead to sudden cardiac death, a risk that can be further heightened in athletes. Saxon’s doctors tried to correct the problem when he was 4 years old, but given his age and the location of the accessory pathway, Vincent says they were warned there was a fi ve percent chance Saxon’s bouts of SVT might return someday. And they did—right in the middle of one of Saxon’s two-a-day football practices prior to the start of his junior year of high school. “He said he felt weird and his heart started racing again,” Vincent recalls. According to Irfan Warsy, M.D., Director, Pediatric Electrophysiology at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, “people are born with these accessory pathways and for some reason they may never cause a problem. But for others, like Saxon, they do present themselves. “ For Saxon, the timing could not have been worse. Not only did it threaten the upcoming season, but his entire athletic career. “I knew playing sports with the condition could be a problem,” he recalls. But Dr. Warsy told Saxon his playing days were far from over— and that if he followed the doctor’s orders, Saxon could be back on the field for the second game of his junior season. So while his teammates were preparing for their first game, Saxon was preparing for a radio frequency catheter ablation of his heart, a procedure that was conducted in the cardiac catheterization labs at Westchester Medical Center. During the procedure, Dr. Warsy threaded electrode catheters (only slightly thicker than pencil lead) through Saxon’s femoral veins up into his heart–one which was used to pinpoint the location of the accessory pathway and the cells that were causing his SVT attacks. Having located the source of the problem, Dr. Warsy then essentially removed those cells to prevent future attacks. “Generally, cardiac catheter ablations result in a long-term cure rate greater than 95 percent, depending on the location of the cells,” Dr. Warsy says. The location of Saxon’s accessory pathway was immediately adjacent to his heart’s own conduction system, the AV node, which meant Dr. Warsy had to be extremely careful in manipulating the ablation catheter. Saxon’s case was further complicated by a condition known as Mahaim fiber tachycardia, an exceedingly rare form of substrate arrhythmia. Dr. Warsy was able to correct the Mahaim fiber as well. “As pediatric cardiologists, we are experienced at treating complex congenital heart disease and also understand the psychological impacts of SVT,” says Dr. Warsy who notes that attacks often occur while kids are having fun. “I treated a patient who had an attack every time she jumped in the pool while another patient stopped playing ball with his dad because every time he threw the ball it would trigger an attack. So this procedure can be positively life-altering for kids.” Saxon’s recovery went very well and as promised, he was back on the fi eld for Chester’s second game of the season. “They weren’t lying,” Saxon says of Dr. Warsy and the doctors at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital. He admits that he wasn’t thoroughly convinced until he took the ball for the first time. “After my fi rst run, I was afraid I would fall and not be able to catch my breath and that would be the end of my playing,” he recalls. “But once I got through that game I knew I’d be OK.” Considering he fi nished the night by rushing for 90 yards while racking up a touchdown and an interception, you might say Saxon was more than just OK. “I’m so glad Saxon was able to follow his dreams,” Dr. Warsy says. “My hope is that every child we treat with this procedure will do the same.”

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