LUMBERTON — Southeastern Health recently celebrated a medical first.
Reggie Collins, of Lumberton, became the first patient to undergo a cardiac cryoablation at Southeastern Health Heart and Vascular, a program managed by Duke Health and located on the campus of Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
Dr. Archie “Zan” Tyson performed the procedure, just a few months after performing the hospital’s first cardiac ablation of any type, which was an atrioventricular node ablation.
“We’ve been waiting for the right patient to be the first cryoablation here,” said Tyson, who is a Duke Health-affiliated cardiologist at Southeastern Cardiology and Cardiovascular Clinic and Southeastern Health Heart and Vascular. “We like to try other things to control atrial fibrillation before we come to this point, like medicine, but Mr. Collins’ AFib was stubborn. After we see he’s holding steady, we’ll start to wean his medicines down.”
Cardiac ablation is a safe and tested procedure that has been practiced regularly in the United States for many years but was never before offered at Southeastern Regional Medical Center until Tyson started performing them at the hospital this year. Cardiac ablation treats AFib, also called atrial flutter or ventricular arrhythmia, which can cause palpitations, fatigue and shortness of breath. It can also cause clots to form and be pushed through to the brain, causing a stroke.
After his procedure on March 20, Collins was able to go home from the hospital the next day. The 56-year-old said he could already tell the difference in how he was feeling the day after the procedure.
“I was feeling tired and I had no energy,” Collins said. “But I feel good now. I can tell the difference. I’ve had AFib since I was in my 30s, but I was recently recommended to see Dr. Tyson. We tried medicine and cardioversion, but it came right back. He said I was going to stay in AFib unless we did something else.”
Cardioversion is a medical procedure that sends electric shocks to the patient’s heart through electrodes placed on the chest. Cardiac ablations involve catheterization under sedation while a medical team maps the misfunctioning nerves on the heart and systematically zaps them with a radio frequency or extreme cold. The radio waves, or cold, in the case of cryoablation, cauterize the specific problem-causing nerves, causing the heart’s muscles to return to normal rhythm.
“I’ve already recommended several people to Dr. Tyson because he’s a fantastic doctor and a terrific person,” Collins said. “His staff is great, too. His team has been fantastic.”
