Dr. Stephen Sroka – Surviving cardiac arrest and heart failure
These excerpts are shared with permission from the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Sroka.
Cardiac arrest nearly killed Dr. Stephen Sroka, but quick medical attention saved his life and led to a diagnosis of a rare form of heart failure.
Dr. Hanna, a cardiologist, learned Stephen was suffering from the ATTR form of cardiac amyloidosis, a disease in which protein is deposited in the heart and causes it to malfunction. As no treatment for it existed, other than a heart transplant, he encouraged Stephen to join a clinical trial (for which he served as lead investigator) with the drug tafamidis.
“Our hope was that patients – like Stephen – would soon have a treatment option,” explains Dr. Hanna, who is Co-Director of the Amyloidosis Center at Cleveland Clinic. “We knew it wouldn’t cure the disease, but might slow its progression and improve patients’ survivability and quality of life.”
