News & Events

WCA Was Featured on KUTV in Salt Lake City, Utah, January 16, 2006

This is a transcript from the feature story.

REPORTER: More than 5 million Americans suffer from an irregular heart beat, also known as Atrial Fibrillation. In tonight's Healthy Living report, a new procedure that many patients are calling a cure.

You are looking at a procedure that is brand new to Utah, it's called a Mini-Maze and a surgeon at St. Mark's hospital is using it to treat patients with Atrial Fibrillation. Patients who suffer from this condition often have a poor quality of life.

DR. DAVID AFFLECK (of St. Mark's Hospital): Patients feel lousy; they have to be on blood thinner and a lot of medications.

REPORTER: Atrial Fibrillation is caused when normal electrical currents to the heart misfire. The Mini-Maze is a procedure that uses clamps to create a path so the electrical currents will go where they're supposed to.

DR. AFFLECK: We can use those clamps to create those channels so the electrical activity falls on one pathway.

REPORTER: In the past, doctors have used medications, electrical shock and open chest surgery to treat this condition, but the Mini-Maze is minimally invasive. You can see the scars on Wesley Dodd's chest -- just a few small incisions as opposed to a major surgery.

DR. AFFLECK: The patients recover much more quickly and get back to their normal activities.”

WESLEY DODD (patient): My recovery was very speedy. I think I went into surgery at noon on a Thursday and I was home watching TV at 7 o'clock on Friday evening.

REPORTER: Emily Gygi also had the procedure after suffering from this condition since childhood. She endured countless other treatments that didn't fix the problem. She says the Mini-Maze cured her.

EMILY GYGI (patient): And I know that I'm cured; I know that I'm cured. I have not had any problems. I've been off my medications, I take an aspirin and that's it. So that's what I'm thrilled about. He's given me my life back.

REPORTER: Not all patients with this condition are candidates for the procedure. The surgeon we interviewed from St. Mark's Hospital is the only surgeon in Utah currently performing the Mini-Maze.