Barbara Bosch, long time resident of the Morgan Park West neighborhood on Chicago’s south side, is reminded regularly by her husband that he saved her life. In a reversal of the common scenario where a wife drags her husband to see the doctor, it was Bill Bosch’s own heart history that prompted him to convince Barbara, 63, to see a cardiologist after she became breathless while running on the local track.
Barbara Bosch enjoys a new lease on life thanks to her husband and Dr. Iaffaldano.
“I’ve been active my whole life,” Barbara said. “But then I developed arthritis and things started going wrong.” Barbara had both knees replaced between 1997 and 2000, and a hip replaced in 2008. A couple months later, she felt ready to hit the track and get back in shape but her heart had other plans.
“I couldn’t make it one lap without running out of breath. I had a tiny burning in my chest, but when I sat down, I felt okay.”
Bill has been a patient for many years of interventional cardiologist, Robert Iaffaldano, M.D., medical director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at MetroSouth Medical Center. He told Dr. Iaffaldano about his wife’s symptoms and the doctor wanted to see her right away.
Like Barbara, women with coronary heart disease often don’t recognize their symptoms. But, many of them don’t get help fast enough. Nearly 500,000 women have heart attacks every year and 42% of them will die. Many are black women who are more likely than white women to die from coronary artery disease.
Barbara underwent angioplasty and within weeks was walking up to a mile and a half several times a week. Today, with her new knees, hip, healthy heart and jokes about being bionic, Barbara is raring to go. “As time goes on I plan to kick up my pace and walk further in the same amount of time,” she said.
MetroSouth Medical Center, which provides advanced cardiac interventional procedures and offers a state-of-the-art heart catherization lab, is recognized as a Chicago leader in outstanding cardiac care. Thirty years ago the hospital was among the first in the Chicago, to offer angioplasty. Since then, more than 15,000 angioplasties and more than 12,000 open heart surgeries have been performed at MSMC.
If have heart disease and want a second opinion or are at risk for heart disease, call a MetroSouth Medical Center cardiologist at 708 489-7925.
