Heart disease: Not only for the middle aged

A young woman gets a new lease on life at DEBORAH

Twenty-one year old Kristin Stelli was a typical college student, attending school in Boston and tending bar part time. One night at work, feeling run-down and "not quite right," Stelli nearly fainted and was taken to the emergency room.

"When I told them I had chest pain, the emergency room doctors thought I had indigestion and sent me home with antacids," says Stelli, now 27. "But when the same thing happened the next day, I knew something was wrong."

After multiple hospital visits in Boston, doctors discovered that Stelli was actually suffering from heart disease; one of her arteries was significantly blocked. Young and health-conscious—Stelli exercised daily and maintained a healthy diet—she exhibited only one risk factor: a family history of heart disease.

"I would never have imagined that I would have a heart problem at 21," Stelli says. "I always thought heart disease happened to people in their 50s."

Stelli underwent multiple angioplasties in Boston to open her artery, but none provided lasting results. She found herself undergoing an angioplasty nearly every month. During a trip home to New Jersey, Stelli’s mother—who also had heart disease—insisted her daughter see her own cardiologist.

Stelli was referred to Deborah by her mother’s cardiologist and was assigned to attending cardiologist Christine Gasperetti, M.D. Knowing there wasn’t a noninvasive procedure that could offer Stelli lasting relief, Dr. Gasperetti recommended bypass surgery.

"When I was told I should consider bypass surgery, I was terrified," says Stelli. "But I thought it couldn’t be worse than having angioplasty over and over again. Instead, I would have one major procedure and be fine."

At 22 years old, Stelli underwent bypass surgery to restore blood flow around her blocked artery. Five years later, the bypass created during her surgery remains open. The scar on her chest is barely noticeable.

"I can do a lot of things today that I couldn’t do before I had bypass surgery,"says Stelli. "I used to just sit and watch. Now I participate. It really has changed my life."