Luanda Grazette, M.D., is a cardiologist and director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Failure Recovery Program at the University of Miami Health System. For more information about Dr. Grazette and the cardiac services offered, click here or visit the UHealth blog.
MEET DOMINICK ESPOSITO:
Retired police officer Dominick Esposito has enjoyed an active life. But recently, walking left him winded.
“I couldn’t walk 20 feet without stopping to catch my breath,” Dominick says.
Dominick went to see Luanda Grazette, M.D., M.P.H., FACC, a cardiologist and director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Failure Recovery Program at UHealth.
“Heart failure, or insuficiencia cardíaca, is a condition that occurs as a result of damage to the heart,” says Dr. Grazette. “So patients will have issues with problems breathing because of fluid buildup in the lungs, or they may have bloating in other parts of the body.”
Dominick says Dr. Grazette took the time to go over his medical records and developed a personalized treatment plan just for him.
“I left there feeling I was going to survive. And that’s the first time in weeks that I ever thought I had a chance to live,” says Dominick.
Thanks to recent advancements, patients can manage and live with heart failure the way they do with other chronic diseases, like diabetes.
“With appropriate care and change in habits and medications and so forth, people live a normal life and actually have a good quality of life and a good length of life,” Dr. Grazette says.
Dr. Grazette put Dominick on a combination of medications to improve his heart function. He went from barely moving to active again.
“I now do close to two and a half miles a day walking. She saved my life,” says Dominick.
FOCUSING ON YOU
Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine is a series of healthcare-related stories airing regularly on WPLG Local 10. For more stories like this one, visit YouTube channels for UHealth, the University of Miami Health System.
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