Until this past August, George Cacini had been enjoying life after retiring as a computer network administrator for a local school district seven years ago.
Cacini, 76, went out to dinner every Saturday night with his wife, Noreen, went on walks with their dog twice a day, exercised regularly, and played piano and sang in his basement recording studio.
“I have a music degree, but I found out early in life that I wouldn’t make a living at it,” said Cacini, who played in bands in Chicago while he was in music school in the late 1960s. “I never stopped playing, and I still love it.”
But in early August, he woke up one night with shortness of breath and extreme anxiety. “I felt terrible,” he said. His primary-care physician later performed an electrocardiogram (EKG) that showed he had atrial fibrillation (Afib) with rapid ventricular response (RVR), an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke and other complications.
After diagnosing Cacini’s Afib, his physician sent him immediately to the emergency room at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook for additional testing. He subsequently underwent a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) with cardioversion, a procedure during which physicians use TEE ultrasound images to ensure there are no blood clots in the heart before using a defibrillator to deliver controlled electrical shocks to restore a regular heartbeat.
“They shocked me back into rhythm, but an EKG a few days later showed I was back in Afib,” Cacini said. The TEE revealed that Cacini also had mitral valve prolapse and regurgitation. That discovery, along with Cacini’s recurring Afib, caused his physicians to conclude he would benefit from open-heart surgery to treat both conditions.
He was referred to Scott Schlidt, M.D., a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon with extensive experience in treating complex heart conditions. Schlidt joined UChicago Medicine this past July, assuming leadership of a world-class team of UChicago Medicine cardiovascular surgeons that had operated at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Hinsdale since October 2023 under an agreement between UChicago Medicine and AdventHealth. The partnership gives UChicago Medicine AdventHealth patients direct access to advanced surgical therapies at the Hinsdale hospital without having to travel into Chicago for such care.
After studying Cacini’s case, Schlidt recommended a multifaceted open-heart surgery. It included repairing the mitral valve by refashioning the abnormal leaflet, sewing in a surgical band to tighten the ring around the valve; a surgical maze procedure, which creates a pattern or “maze” of scar tissue in the atria to prevent faulty electrical signals that can cause AFib; and a left atrial appendage ligation, which closes a small pouch in the wall of the left atrium to prevent blood clots that commonly form there during AFib from entering the bloodstream and possibly causing a stroke.
Cacini agreed to move forward with the surgery, which Schlidt performed Oct. 1 at the Hinsdale hospital. The surgery lasted about five hours. After spending three days in the hospital’s intensive care unit, Cacini was discharged Oct. 4 to recuperate at home.
Two weeks after his surgery, Cacini had another EKG, and it showed his AFib was gone. As Thanksgiving approached, he continued to be free of any Afib symptoms, and the occasional twinges of pain he had felt as his breastbone healed after the surgery had virtually disappeared. He had resumed walking the dog, exercising and playing the piano. He and Noreen also had started going out again for Saturday night dinners.
“I feel very good,” said Cacini, who continues to take blood thinners but no longer needs Afib medications. “Dr. Schlidt told me the maze procedure can take care of Afib permanently, and so far, it has. Thank God for that, because the symptoms were terrifying at times. What he does is amazing. To go into your heart and fix something like that ... I’m just amazed.”
Cacini praised the care he received at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth. Team members, he said, were “very professional and very friendly.” Schlidt’s nurse, Jaime Park “always got back to Noreen and me immediately when we called and answered all questions with great clarity,” Cacini said. “Her performance was excellent.”
Cacini took special note of Schlidt’s bedside manner, recalling a moment when the surgeon happened to see him looking dejected in the ICU. “He wasn’t there to see me, but he stopped, came over to me, and said, `George, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?’ I said I wasn’t, and he talked with me for a while. He said, ‘Don’t worry. It’s going to take a few days, but you’re going to feel a lot better.’ I really appreciated that. He just seemed to know. He’s very intuitive.”
Cacini also was grateful to Schlidt for taking time to talk with Noreen immediately after his surgery. “He talked with Noreen for about half an hour and explained everything to her,” Cacini said. “Because of that, she felt a lot better. Besides being a top-notch surgeon, Dr. Schlidt is also a very nice guy. He really cares about his patients.”
George Cacini is back to enjoying his daily walks with his dog after successful heart surgery at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth. “I feel very good,” he says, grateful to be free of AFib symptoms and back to living life to the fullest.
