TAVR story

Jennifer Tornetta, (O) 609-569-7010, (C) 609-335-3446, [email protected]

For Immediate Release: June 10, 2020

An 81-year-old Pleasantville, New Jersey woman doesn’t miss a beat as she describes being hospitalized for heart valve replacement at AtlantiCare in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everybody was so wonderful,” says Laura Thompson of the providers and staff at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center Mainland Campus in Pomona.

She says the team explained why they wore masks in all encounters with her. “They said it was to protect me. I felt safe.”

“Mrs. Thompson had a blockage in her aortic valve that made it difficult for her heart to pump blood out to the rest of her body,” says Tome Nascimento, M.D., AtlantiCare cardiologist.

Concerned with his patient’s symptoms, he had discussed her case with the AtlantiCare’s Structural Heart Team at AtlantiCare’s Heart and Vascular Institute.

“She was having these dreadful episodes where she couldn’t breathe,” said Thompson’s daughter, Delrose Thomas.

She had planned on being with her mother for her transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure March 30.

Because of temporary visitor policy changes aimed at keeping patients, families, staff and providers safe during the pandemic, Thomas was not able to be with her mother in the hospital.

She also couldn’t wave to her from outside a hospital window because Thomas lives in London. She wasn’t able to fly out to join her mother before flights were prohibited.

“I was under lockdown so the care team talked with me to let me know everything that was going on.” She says she did not fear her mother being in the hospital.

“Every step of the way they were in touch with me to tell me what she was going to have done,” she adds.

I had lots of sleepless nights,” explains Thomas, noting she is five hours ahead of New Jersey time.

“She had a whole team of doctors, which made me feel a lot more at ease. I was able to talk to the surgeon right before the surgery.” Thomas said she didn’t fear for her mother’s safety in the midst of COVID-19.

“She went on holiday with my aunt and fell in love with America and insisted that she wanted to go back,” says Thomas of why her mother moved to Atlantic City in the mid-seventies and eventually became a U.S. citizen.

At the age of 47, Thompson started her role at AtlantiCare. She worked in Environmental Services at ARMC Atlantic City Campus for 26 years before retiring in 2012.

“My son and I used to visit her in Atlantic City,” says Thomas. We’d spend days on the beach while she was at work. It was great.”

She recalls her mother telling her that everyone with whom she worked was friendly and sociable and that she learned much from the work and her colleagues.

“She said back then that you didn’t have that divide. She felt that collaboration and respect as a patient as well. Everyone was lovely.”

“I was a patient there and I got that experience,” says Thompson. “I loved working at the hospital. Being a patient, it gave me such pleasure to see the doctors, nurses, housekeepers and other staff.

“To see how they clean and how the doctors treat me, I said to myself, ‘Am I a queen or celebrity or something that I get such special care?’ They took such good care of me. The nurses were so kind and said, ‘We are here for you.’ The doctors made me laugh.

“I wondered if it was because I used to work here. But it is not. It is in their nature to take care of us as patients.”

“I loved my job. I was always singing. I talked with the patients. I did what I could for them,” says Thompson describing what it was like to give the same care to patients that she experienced.

“During the Covid pandemic we’ve continued to provide urgent, emergency, and time-sensitive heart surgeries and procedures,” says Jeffrey Van Hook, D.O., medical director of the Structural Heart Program.

TAVR is a minimally invasive alternative for patients for whom surgical aortic valve replacement poses too high a risk of complications.

“We used a catheter to implant a new valve in Mrs. Thompson’s heart. We made a small incision in her leg and fed the catheter to her heart to place the new valve.”

Van Hook says a nationwide trend that AtlantiCare is also experiencing is that people are ignoring symptoms or putting off getting care for heart conditions and other chronic conditions.

“This could put them at risk of getting sicker, or even dying,” he says.

“Mrs. Thompson urgently needed this care. We continue to safely provide care for all of our patients.”

“Mrs. Thompson’s story illustrates the life-saving and life-enhancing importance of a patient, her family, and her care team communicating to insure timely treatment,” says Nascimento.

“We are committed to making it as easy as possible for individuals to get routine and specialty care – through our Telehealth program, in person in our offices, and in the hospital. Of course, in an emergency, such as for chest pain, dial 911 immediately.”

“I was glad they were able to take care of her,” says Thomas, who talks with her mother daily to check on her and to make sure she is taking her medication.

“Before the procedure, I was totally worried. She could barely walk. She desperately needed the operation. They saved her life. When I talked with her this week she was out in the garden about to hang laundry!”

“Go to AtlantiCare,” says Thompson. “They will take care of you because there is a lot of love there.”

For more information about AtlantiCare, call the AtlantiCare Access Center at 1-888-569-1000; visit www.atlanticare.org; or find AtlantiCare on Facebook.

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AtlantiCare is an integrated healthcare system based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, whose more than 6,000 staff, providers and volunteers serve the community in more than 100 locations in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May and Ocean counties of southern New Jersey. Its vision of building healthy communities together drives its mission of making a difference in health and healing, one person at a time, through caring and trusting relationships. A Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award winner, AtlantiCare was also included in Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work. AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center was the 105th hospital in the nation to attain the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet™ designation in 2004 and earned redesignation in 2008, 2013, in 2018. Learn more at atlanticare.org or 1-888-569-1000.