Atrial Fibrillation

A difficult - and lifechanging - decision to undergo surgery

“That doesn’t sound good” are not the words you want to hear when your doctor listens to your heart during a routine physical. But that’s what happened when Mark Green saw his primary care physician in the San Francisco Bay Area in July of 2021.

“He performed an EKG right away and all I could think was, ‘Am I having a heart attack?’” Green, then 62, recalls. “He walked the results over to a cardiologist in the same building and came right back, telling me I had to go to the emergency room now.”

“I was terrified,” Green continues. “They put me on a heart monitor in the ER and at first thought it was broken because my heart rate was bouncing all over the place. That’s when I learned I had atrial fibrillation.”

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a quivering or irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. It can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications. More than 12 million people are projected to have AFib by 2030. 
Green was admitted to the hospital overnight and given medication to restore a regular heart rhythm.

“It worked for about two months, but then the AFib started to come and go,” Green says.

His doctors tried a more powerful medication, but that also stopped working.

“So, in September of 2021, they did cardioversion,” he says. This procedure uses electrical current to “shock” the heart back into a normal rhythm. His symptoms subsided for a while. 

The following February, Green moved to Rancho Mirage. His first order of business was to find a primary care doctor. He succeeded, but with the increased demand for appointments in the valley after the COVID pandemic, his first visit couldn’t be scheduled until August.

In the meantime, his AFib symptoms started to recur.

“I knew I couldn’t wait five months to see my primary care doctor to get a referral to a cardiologist, so I started calling Eisenhower’s cardiology department directly,” he says.

Green’s persistence paid off. He was able to see Evan Diamantakos, DO, Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Eisenhower Desert Cardiology Center. Dr. Diamantakos is an electrophysiologist, an expert who specializes in treating heart rhythm disorders.

“At my initial consultation with Mr. Green, we discovered that he not only had paroxysmal, or intermittent, atrial fibrillation, but he also was beginning to show signs of heart failure,” Dr. Diamantakos says. “The squeezing strength of his heart muscle was low when he was in AFib, because with abnormal electrical signals in the heart, you get abnormal heart function.”

“I explained that we could increase his medication, but his AFib and heart failure were only going to get worse over time,” he continues. “To help keep more advanced heart failure at bay, reduce the frequency of AFib events, and give him a better quality of life, cryoablation was indicated.”

Cryoablation is a minimally invasive procedure in which a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel, usually in the upper leg. Under imaging guidance, the catheter is threaded through the circulatory system until it reaches the heart. There, extreme cold energy is directed to the heart tissue that’s causing erratic electrical signals, creating lesions that cause the tissue to scar. This prevents the erratic signals from reaching the atria and restores a healthy rhythm.

Green was apprehensive about undergoing ablation and initially opted to stay on medication. But over the next few months, his symptoms began to increase in frequency, severity and duration. He saw Dr. Diamantakos several more times and each time they would discuss ablation. But Green’s fear held him back.

“By this time, I was in AFib practically all the time,” Green says.

He also was experiencing dizziness and exhaustion.

“I just couldn’t live like that and decided to go ahead with the procedure,” Green says. “Even though I was still scared. What helped me move forward was when Dr. Diamantakos said he needed me to have faith in him and have a positive attitude, that it would not only help me but also help him. That made all the difference.”

“For Mr. Green, it was a journey getting him to agree to ablation,” Dr. Diamantakos says. “But our job is to educate and help the patient feel comfortable... trusting us with their heart. We took the time to talk about the procedure as many times as needed, answer questions, and build a relationship based on trust.”

Green underwent cryoablation the morning of April 21, 2023, and was home that afternoon. He says the procedure has totally changed his life.  

“I’ve had maybe five or six very short episodes of AFib since my procedure over a year ago, but I understood that’s to be expected,” he says. “I feel so much better today; I got my life back. And I owe it to Dr. Diamantakos.”

“I’m a private person, but if my story helps one other person with AFib get the help I got, it’s worth it,” he adds.

“Catching and treating atrial fibrillation early on will improve quality of life and, as in Mr. Green’s case, prevent further heart failure caused by the arrhythmia,” Dr. Diamantakos affirms. “Wait-and-see is not the best approach when you start experiencing AFib symptoms.”

To learn more about the services at Eisenhower Desert Cardiology Center, 
visit EisenhowerHealth.org/DesertCard