Jennifer's Profile

My name is Jennifer Cohen-Louth. Yeah it's a mouthful most people call me Jennifer or Jen. I was born in Berkeley California in 1966 and am adopted. This is Important to me because my mom was a cardiac cath lab technician which I believe is the only reason they let my parents have me. I was born with a severe heart condition. I was blue under 2lbs and fit in a shoe Box. At 3 mths I had a coarctation of the aorta PDA and ASD. I was operated on by Dr. Haginshio and lived. Apparently this surprised everyone. I was told that I still had a murmur and went routinely to get echos. When I was 20 and pregnant with my first son I was diagnosed with mitral stenosis. We tried to get my records which proved impossible. I was told and believed this was due to rheumatic fever which I did have as a child. Good news two healthy sons with no signs or symptoms of any heart issues. This past September I developed pneumonia and went into tach which was recorded at 256 at the hospital. Three weeks three hospitals and I can't remember how many tests later I was released with newly developed Afib and and roller coaster of medications were tried. Unfortunately nothing worked mainly because I have low blood pressure and cannot tolerate these types of medications. 3 cardiologists, 3 surgeons one cath surgeon and it was decided I must have surgery. I'm five weeks post op and happy to be alive. It turns out my valve issue has been since birth and I only had one leaflet. I had Minimally Invasive MV Replacement surgery at MT. Sinai in Miami on December 22nd 2011 by Dr. Lamelas.