For immediate release
November 2, 2005
Contact: Bob Beard
(434) 982-4490
UVa HEART PROCEDURES GIVE PUERTO RICO
CHARTER CAPTAIN NEW LIFE ON THE TILLER
Imagine traveling 2,000 miles to get your heart repaired. That’s just what Capt. Bill Henry of Fajardo, Puerto Rico did when a heart problem called atrial fibrillation almost forced him to put his livelihood in drydock. Now, thanks to doctors, nurses and technicians at the University of Virginia Health System, it’s clear skies for Henry and his passion for sailing.
Henry and his wife, Ingrid, enjoy an enviable Caribbean lifestyle skippering the 50-foot 
ketch, Erin Go Bragh, and escorting more than 800 vacationers a year on sailing and snorkeling tours of Puerto Rico’s coral reefs, sandy beaches and unspoiled islands. “Every day is a joy,” Henry said.
For years, Henry suffered from an abnormal heart rhythm. Several years ago, he was fitted with a pacemaker and was feeling fine. Suddenly, Henry’s heart disease worsened. He developed atrial fibrillation (afib) in which the heart’s upper chambers, the atria, flutter uncontrollably as well. “It went on all the time, 24-7,” Henry said. “Just taking the trash from the boat to the dock was exhausting. I was winded after walking just a few minutes.”
One cardiologist on the island told him to live with the condition. But he and his wife were naturally alarmed and, after researching afib on the web, learned about a treatment called radiofrequency ablation. The Henrys emailed several hospitals and heard back from doctors at the UVa Heart and Vascular Center within days.
“At UVa, we approach every case individually. For Bill, we needed to use a number of different therapies,” said Dr. Mike Mangrum, Henry’s cardiologist and director of the Atrial Fibrillation center at UVa. “He has a very complex history of heart disease. We performed the ablation procedure first, reprogrammed his pacemaker, then added the heart rhythm medication dofetilide, which he takes twice a day. This so-called hybrid therapy isn’t for every patient, but it proved to be very effective in alleviating Bill’s problem, improving quality of life.”
Radiofrequency ablation is a relatively new procedure that uses an electrical current to correct the heart’s rhythm disturbances. In Capt. Henry’s case, Mangrum and his team placed catheters through the groin to the left atrium and the pulmonary vein. Electrical current was sent through the catheter. This ‘ablation’ created a break in the electrical circuit of the heart, and a barrier to stop irregular impulses.
“I’m back to my old self again,” Capt. Bill Henry said recently. “And I don’t have to quit what I love so much. UVa was so fast, helpful and responsive, and you don’t get that from many places.”
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