Proactive atrial fibrillation treatment gives lifelong St. Paul brewer relief from debilitating symptoms
Phil Gagné spent his career as a brewer and brewmaster at Schmidt Brewery in Saint Paul. Since the brewery closed, he’s helped preserve its history and care for the 15-acre site. Gagné was used to caring for the brewery but, when he began experiencing an irregular heartbeat, he needed to learn how to care for his heart, as well.
Last spring, Gagné began having dizzy spells and would wake up in the night with his heart racing. Unsure at first what was causing these unusual episodes, he soon learned he had atrial fibrillation – a condition that causes irregular heart rhythm and can lead to serious complications like stroke and heart failure. With help from our East Metro cardiologists and an ablation procedure in the new cardiac catheterization facility at M Health Fairview St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, Gagné is now sleeping peacefully and free from worry about serious long term complications.
“My mind is at ease now that it’s been almost three months since I had an episode,” he said.
First signs of atrial fibrillation
Gagné first noticed something was off when he began having dizzy spells in May 2022. Dizziness is a common symptom of atrial fibrillation, which affects at least 3 to 6 million Americans and is especially common in older adults. Other symptoms include a rapid or irregular heartbeat, fatigue, shortness of breath, weakness, and chest pain or discomfort.
He called his primary care provider, Molly Rentz, PA-C, who referred him to the cardiology team at M Health Fairview Woodwinds Hospital in Woodbury for a heart monitor.
“I had the heart monitor put on and the next day Molly called to ask, ‘What were you doing yesterday at 11:25 a.m.?’” Gagné recalled. “I said that I was getting my heart monitor put on and Molly told me, ‘You were in atrial fibrillation.’”
When Gagné got this news, he and his wife were planting flowers outside Phil’s Well House and Brewery Park, the business he now operates on the Schmidt Brewery grounds selling drinking water from the aquifer that was historically used to brew beer.
“We were excited because they had found out what was happening,” Gagné said. “All the right steps were taken.”
Aggressive treatment to improve outcome
Gagné worked with M Health Fairview Cardiologist Charles Cliffe, MD, and Electrophysiology Nurse Practitioner Chloe Lebron, APRN, CNP, at Woodwinds Hospital to come up with a treatment plan. When he didn’t respond to medication as desired, Lebron brought up ablation, which is a procedure done via small catheters to eliminate the misfiring regions in the heart which can throw off its rhythm.
“Everybody let us make the decisions all the way through, but they helped guide us,” said Gagné. “It was a great team all the way.”
Lebron connected Gagné with Amila Dilusha William, MD, a cardiac electrophysiologist at St. John’s Hospital who specializes in abnormal heart rhythms. Gagné scheduled an ablation with William for the fall. His atrial fibrillation episodes were becoming more frequent.
“It would wake me up in the middle of the night and it wouldn’t go away for a couple of hours,” he said. “Your heart’s racing and it’s telling your brain, ‘We’re running a marathon, wake everybody up and get the adrenaline going.’ It was total discomfort.”
Increased understanding of the risks of atrial fibrillation and its impact on health and quality of life has upended historically conservative approaches and made it more common to treat the disease as early as possible with medication and ablation.
“We know that atrial fibrillation is a progressive condition; it gets harder to treat as time goes on,” said William. “We’re much more aggressive now in atrial fibrillation treatment and, the earlier we can start treatment, the better outcomes we see.”
