By james art You often hear “listen to your body”. What if your body says nothing? If there are no symptoms, you probably won’t know anything is wrong until it’s too late. A Madison man is thankful he avoided it thanks to local doctors and an innovative procedure. He also thinks that someone he loves with all his heart is keeping an eye on him.
Mario White and his mother Belva were always talking. When it came to expressing her feelings for her son, she made sure White got the message.
“It takes me back to when I was able to hear her speak and be with her,” White said.
White referred to a voicemail of his mother singing Happy Birthday to him. The message ends with her saying “I love you Mario.” White’s mother died in 2023 after a short battle with cancer.
“We were very close,” White said.
After suddenly losing her mother, White decided she wanted to prioritize her own health.
“It had been a few years since I’d had a physical,” White said.
White knew he had a broken heart, but he didn’t know he actually had a hole in his heart. This is what the doctors found during the examination. It was a big surprise because he didn’t have any symptoms.
“I had no idea anything was wrong with me,” White said.
If he hadn’t discovered it, it could have led to more serious health complications like a stroke. Last spring, White underwent robotic heart surgery to repair the hole.
“We are currently the only center in the state of Wisconsin that offers this type of surgery,” said Dr. Ghulam Murtaza, SSM Health cardiothoracic surgeon.
To be clear, robots did not perform the surgery. Dr. Murtaza did it using a robotic device. Instead of opening White’s chest, he was able to make small cuts in White’s side.
“Little keyholes,” Murtaza said.
He uses small tools to repair the hole.
“It’s like miniature hands in your chest and you can control it. It’s all manual like a faucet,” White said.
Dr. Murtaza and his team recently recorded their 500th robotic heart procedure. It’s less invasive, and patients like White recover more quickly. White says he recovered in three weeks and is thankful he made the appointment. If he wasn’t, he might not have known that something was wrong with his heart.
“Things could have been really bad,” White said.
Mario White credits the doctors and nurses for saving him the way he did. However, he says he feels like his mother is still talking to him. Glad he got the message.
“I thought this would be the person I would talk to about it. I also looked this up as it was my mum telling me to go to the doctor. That was her taking care of me,” White said.