Each February Nicole Pranzo returns to the Mather Hospital Emergency Department (ED) and distributes heart-shaped doughnuts to the staff. It’s an occasion she refers to as her “aortaversary”, the day the staff and doctors at Mather helped save her life.
“On February 11, 2021, I was preparing for a trip to Aruba the next day and I was getting ready for work. I bent over to put my shoe on, and I felt like I was going to pass out. My right arm went completely numb. I thought I was calling out for my husband but in fact I couldn’t speak at the time. It had snowed that day so my husband and my son were home, My husband came back into the kitchen and saw me lying there. He called 911.
“In the ambulance the EMTs thought I was having a stroke. We got to Mather’s ED . They wouldn’t let my husband in the Emergency Room because of COVID.
“Dr. Ali Khan had met me at the door when they were bringing me in. He said later because I could speak when I got to the ED and I had no pulse in my right arm, he knew it wasn’t a stroke. They did a CT scan and confirmed it was an aortic dissection.” An aortic dissection is a serious condition where the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s main artery, tears, causing blood to flow between the layers of the aortic wall.
Ms. Pranzo was transported via Northwell’s SkyHealth helicopter to South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore where she underwent a six-hour surgery by Dr. Syed Hussain to repair the aortic dissection.
“They said to my husband we don’t know what she will be like when she wakes up. She could have cognitive issues. But I was fine.
“My aorta was enlarged. It turned out I have a connective tissue disorder that leads to weakening of the arteries. I found out through genetic testing. I had no symptoms until that day. I was 48 at the time. He repaired what was emergent and saved my life.”
Last February on her aortaversary she finally met Dr. Khan, the doctor who diagnosed her condition. “I am alive today because of Dr. Khan and the staff at the Mather ER,” she said. “I am forever grateful to the entire staff that was working the morning of February 11, 2021!”