WOODBRIDGE -- A special cancer survivor's night will be held at the Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge. 

The idea is to bring together cancer survivors for a game of Minor Leauge Baseball on Friday, May 4, when the Potomac Nationals take on the Salem Red Sox.

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WOODBRIDGE — On Monday, April 2, 2018, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center ushered in a new level of care with the introduction of left-sided pulmonary vein ablation. The Sentara Heart & Vascular Team, led by Dr. Aysha Arshad, Medical Director of Electrophysiology, performed the first of its kind procedure for the hospital.

“This is wonderful for our community,” says Dr. Arshad. “This means the beginning of more complex procedures in the Electrophysiology Lab here at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, which opens up these vital services to members of our community. They won’t have to travel long distances for care because our highly experienced staff and physicians are the same that are working in all the top hospital centers in the area.”

Left-side pulmonary vein ablation or pulmonary vein isolation is used to treat Atrial Fibrillation, also known as AFib. AFib is a type of heart arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat that an estimated seven million Americans live with every day.

In atrial fibrillation, disorganized electrical signals originate in the heart’s upper chambers, or atria, causing the rhythm to be irregular. Because the contractions are not coordinated as in a normal heartbeat, the heart does not pump blood effectively to the rest of the body causing patients to experience a racing or quivering heartbeat, dizziness, shortness of breath and often feel tired.

People with AFib have a five times greater risk for stroke. 

After living with the condition for three-years, Woodbridge resident Claudia Warszawski, was looking for relief.

“I’m a very active 67-year-old. I walk three days a week at the mall and I just couldn’t keep up my pace. I’d have to stop and it was irritating,” said Warszawski.

After consulting with the grandmother of five and reviewing her history, Dr. Arshad shared she was a perfect candidate for the procedure. 

As the Electrophysiology program at Sentara Heart & Vascular Center has grown, so have the services. Left-sided ablation is the latest advancement of the program. In ablation, areas of tissue in the heart that cause arrhythmias are destroyed. 

“In left-sided procedures, where AFib comes from, it involves tackling circuits on the left side of the heart. There’s no natural passage to the left side of the heart, so we enter through a vein in the leg and travel to the chest where we make a tiny puncture in the interatrial septum with a small needle and pass a catheter through that tiny hole to the left side of the heart. From there we create a 3D map of the heart and get to the circuits that cause AFib,” explains Dr. Arshad.

After the procedure is completed and the catheter removed, the tiny hole heals on its own over the next four weeks. A chip, implanted in the chest at the time of the procedure, allows real-time monitoring of the patient.

“It’s the whole advent of real-time telemedicine,” explains Dr. Arshad, “The device will track her rhythm all day and at night transcribe it into a report, which will be emailed to me that evening. The device downloads all that data so I’ll know how she’s going to do long-term.”

As for Warszawski, days after her procedure she’s already feeling better, “This gives me a new lease to live the life I want before I was tired and always had heart palpitations and flutters. Now, I can’t even feel my heart beating, and that’s a good thing!”

If you’re experiencing a racing, fluttering, pounding or irregular heartbeat, don’t ignore those symptoms, find a healthcare provider at 1-800-SENTARA or Sentara.com to schedule your exam.   

Joshua Goad and his wife are always on the go.

“We are very active. I’ve got a sailboat, a kayak. We enjoy going to the gym and working out. It keeps us young,” says the 56-year-old, smiling.

It was during one of his usual workouts when something unusual happened.

“I was at the gym and overexerted myself lifting. At first, I didn’t think anything of it, but then, I started to notice a bulge near my groin region,” he recalls.

Like a lot of people, Joshua Goad thought the problem would fix itself and heal on its own until it didn’t. It was about this time, he started to realize he might have a hernia. 

“I would get to the point where I was lifting, exerting and I could actually feel it tightening up on my intestines, the intestine that was hanging out. At that point, I said, if I strangulate this thing, I could be in a world of trouble,” he says, remembering.

That’s when he made an appointment with board-certified, Sentara Medical Group surgeon, Dr. Steven Nakao. Dr. Nakao quickly diagnosed Joshua with an inguinal hernia.

Dr. Nakao says hernias aren’t that uncommon, “A hernia is when an intra-abdominal organ, or fatty tissue, protrudes through a muscle defect.  This can occur in numerous areas of the body, the abdominal wall, diaphragm and in the groin.  Patients can have a single hernia or numerous hernias at one time.”

While asymptomatic hernias can be observed for some time, Joshua and Dr. Nakao discussed the options and decided surgery would be best. That’s when Dr. Nakao shared with Joshua, he was a candidate for robotic surgery.

“We can tackle all types of hernias using this method. We can approximate the muscles due to the advances in technology and be able to sew easily in the abdomen and then place mesh, if appropriate, through the small incisions,” said Dr. Nakao. “So we get both a return of muscle function and repair of a hernia through small incisions.  This is great for both post-op pain and time off work.”

Joshua had his surgery at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in December 2017. He says he suffered some discomfort those first few days after his procedure, but it wasn’t long until he was back to exercising.

“The weekend after my surgery, my wife and I went to the gym and I was pretty much able to do a limited workout,” says Joshua smiling.

Now, four months later, he says he’s doing better than ever before and doesn’t know why he waited so long.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything better, I was very confident in Dr. Nakao and his abilities. And, he and his team were very helpful. The whole process was smooth,” says Joshua.

And, he has this advice for people living with a hernia: “I should never have let it go for so long. I guarantee it (your hernia) will not get any better. What are you waiting for?”

You shouldn’t live in pain, that’s why Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is hosting three, free hernia screenings over the next few months on the mornings of April 14 and May 19. The screenings are free, but you must register.

You see their faces as you drive through a busy stretch of Northern Virginia highway- knowledgeable women, skilled, well-versed and educated in their fields: Women Physicians For Women’s Health.

Their billboard sits off of Route 1 in Prince William County, not far from Dawson Beach Road, and less than five miles from Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

We had a chance to interview these physicians, learn more about what drives them, and have them share their experiences.  

Dr. Christina Baraty, MD, Attending Physician, Obstetrics and Gynecology

Q: What is your specialty and what do you love about it? 

“My specialty entails all aspects of women’s health. I manage well-woman exams, birth control, gynecologic complications, infertility, pregnancy, menopause, and more! I am also a surgeon and I am able to manage any gynecologic or obstetric issues with surgical management. I love being a part of a woman’s lifelong health and an advocate for women. I love that gynecologists were at the forefront for minimally invasive surgical techniques starting with laparoscopy and now today with DaVinci Robotic surgeries. I love that we are strongly trained in using ultrasound imaging in OB/GYN to quickly, easily, and safely image patients in the office or at the hospital with a portable ultrasound if necessary for a diagnosis.” 

Q: You’re new to the Woodbridge market- what are you excited about, moving forward?

“I’m really excited to be coming from an academic center and applying evidence-based medicine to local community hospital here in Woodbridge.” 

Q: What do you wish patients knew or asked going into/coming out of care? 

“I love my patients that play a role in their own health care, ask questions, and are engaged in their healthcare conversation. They can do this by having a patient portal account with our office that easily allows them to review their own results and electronically message me with any questions or concerns.

Dr. Ghana Kang, M.D, Hematology Oncology

Q: What is your specialty and what do you love about it? 

“My specialty is treating patients with blood disorders or cancers. I like it for several reasons, it is scientifically challenging but exciting!!! There are many new potential armamentariums in the pipelines. Major multinational pharmaceutical companies are investing to develop new cancer drugs. Having a new FDA-approved indication almost every day is fascinating. Also, people may think cancer is a death sentence. However, a lot of patients actually go cancer-free or LIVE with cancer. And I walk the long journey with them, side-by-side, through victorious, as well as sad moments.” 

Q: You’re new to the Woodbridge market- what are you excited about, moving forward?

“Contributing to the community and helping people in need.”

Q: What do you wish patients knew or asked going into/coming out of care?

“Cancer treatment is constantly evolving. Your treatment will likely be different from that of your acquaintance. Don’t be overly discouraged from all you hear. Consult with trustworthy specialists.”

Q: What do you want patients to know about you?

“I delicately consider all the treatment options for each of my patients. When they suffer, I suffer as well.” 

Dr. Alexandra Modiri, MD, Gastroenterology/Hepatology

Q: What is your specialty and what do you love about it? 

“My specialty encompasses disorders of the GI tract, including the pancreas and liver. My specialty provides me with a variety of things to do in my day to day practice. I am never bored! I enjoy seeing patients in clinic, getting to know them and helping them with their issues. My specialty also allows me to perform hands-on procedures such as endoscopy and colonoscopy- which are things that I enjoy.” 

Q: You’re new to the Woodbridge market- what are you excited about, moving forward?

“I am excited to get to meet and know the people in my community and grow my practice as I set new roots.”

Q: What do you wish patients knew or asked going into/coming out of care?

“Colonoscopies saves lives. Having a colonoscopy is not as bad as it sounds/seems.” 

Q: What do you want patients to know about you?

“I am a compassionate and caring physician. When patients come to see me, their health is my number one priority and I will do my best to help them.”

Just as the weather breaks and it begins to grow warmer, the Women’s Health Center at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center’s team of doctors, nurses and staff are trading in their scrubs for tennis shoes.

It’s for the annual March of Dimes March for Babies walk.

“It’s such a great way for all of us to celebrate, honor, and remember our babies with others who care so much about mother/baby health issues,” explains Florence Pullo, Interim Director for the Women’s Health Center at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, “Sentara actively participates in this campaign to emphasize how important we believe the health of mom and babies is and to unite the community in building a brighter future for all of us!”

It’s that dedication to teamwork and commitment to the smallest members of our community which is the cornerstone of everything that happens in the Women’s Health Center and is the foundation for Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center’s partnership with Children’s National Health System.

Children’s National is ranked number one for newborn intensive care in the U.S. News & World Report 2017-18 Best Children’s Hospital Survey.

“This partnership is a good thing for families and the community,” says Dr. Ashraf Afifi, MD, MPH. “The team from Children’s National offers their skills in both the full-term nursery and the intensive care nursey.”

Children’s National’s Neonatologist Dr. Afifi is the Medical Director of Neonatology at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center. He was named a “top doc” in the recent “Best Of” edition of Northern Virginia Magazine. Since 2014, he has led the team, which staffs the special care nursery, a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), providing expert care for the sick newborns of Woodbridge and the surrounding region.

“Sentara was looking for the skills and expertise of Children’s National on the ground. Right now, we keep the kids who are in need of neonatal intensive services in Sentara. However, if infants need extra help and support, we’ll stabilize them and a transport team flies or ambulances them to Children’s,” explains Dr. Afifi.

The Children’s team at Sentara consists of full-time, board-certified neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners for around the clock care.

“We are here 24/7. Not all specialty nurseries have this level of care around the clock. We do,” explains Children’s National NICU Nurse Practitioner, Rosemary O’Neill.

The 14-bed unit typically consists of six intensive care and eight step-down beds. As a Level II NICU, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center is licensed to treat babies between 32 to 44 weeks of gestation and at least 1,500 grams or 3.3 pounds.

This partnership allows families to stay close to home as they deal with a premature baby.

“For our part, we want you to stay in the community, we have everything here. You don’t have to go elsewhere. We want to be full service for you. We’re trying to get the word out and inform more families because they’re not aware of those things,” explains O’Neill.

Last year there were 260 admissions to the intensive care nursery, which is reflective of how this collaborative approach has been effective and was needed by the community. Just over 15% of those babies were transferred to Children’s National for a higher level of care.

“This collaboration give families and caregivers more advanced technologies, more advanced diagnosis, more advanced devices,” says O’Neill. “Not only do we have access to Children’s National in D.C., but we also have access to all of Sentara’s resources to our south.”

Dr. Afifi agrees, citing the advancements in research and telemedicine.

“Super pediatric subspecialties, which are few and far between, we can now reach them by telemedicine. We can reach them from the comfort of the practitioner here at Sentara. For example, the peds pathology, endocrinology, cardiology –who will give the information and have the best advice.”

In the end, the partnership is a win for both the hospital and the community it serves.

“At the end of the day, you have a family caring for their child, they have their worries and anxieties for their child, will that child make it or not, how’s that child going to be, what will this child look like down the road in a year or two, having been born at 600 or 700 grams, all of this. Our team practicing here will definitely give them assurances and we can share all the numbers and statistics with them,” explains Dr. Afifi speaking to the team’s level of expertise.

It’s this commitment to the babies they serve and the families they get to know personally every day that motivates the team to participate in the March of Dimes walk. This year is no different as they’ll be part of the Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center’s March for Babies team on Sunday, April 29 at the Loy E. Harris Pavilion in Manassas.

Join the Sentara team and register for this family and dog-friendly event.

Emergency Department physician Dr. Anoop Kumar has dedicated his life to helping people who are sick, scared and hurt.   

“I received my MD in 2007 and completed my training in Emergency Medicine in 2011. I like the clinical diversity of Emergency Medicine. I see young, old, female, male, many critically ill, some not so ill, medical, psychiatric, surgical, and social conditions. If one can bear to look, it’s [the Emergency Department] a window into the soul of society,” says Dr. Kumar.

While his goal is to help and heal the men, women, and children who enter through the doors of Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Dr. Kumar has always been concerned with more than physical ailments, saying, “The mind-body connection is real. There’s a lot of research pointing to that.”

That connection plays an integral part in his life, and it’s something he’s especially mindful of as he’s treating some of the region’s sickest patients. While being the answer to a patients’ prayers is a tremendous gift, it also carries with it an enormous amount of responsibility. That’s why Dr. Kumar has organized something for his co-workers at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center. Every month, he leads a meditation session for the doctors, nurses and staff at the hospital.

Meditation is something he has had in his life since he was a child. “I grew up with meditation,” explains Dr. Kumar. “To start off meditating as a kid isn’t really meditating, it’s just noticing things around you. Noticing your thoughts, noticing your feelings.”

As a child, Anoop Kumar was surrounded by the teachings of Eastern philosophy. He says he came to recognize a common message woven through philosophy, science and spirituality- a message of well-being. It’s that message that helped inspire him to write his first book, “Michelangelo’s Medicine.”

“When I became a physician and completed my training in Emergency Medicine, I saw that all those years of thinking about health, healing and what it means to be human could lend an important context to healthcare,” he explains. “One of the main points I make in the book is the human being is not only a human body. For example, when we learn anatomy, we learn about organs. But organs alone don’t make a human being. We have to include other elements, like emotion, thought, intuition, desire and consciousness.”

Dr. Kumar isn’t a stranger to sharing his knowledge when it comes to the art of meditation. It was just about two years ago when he began corresponding with Deepak Chopra, known worldwide as a pioneer in mind-body medicine. “The statements he made about the mind several decades ago were often ridiculed, but today some of those same principles are taught in top institutions around the world. Interestingly, the period over which his career developed is the same period over which I was privately thinking about the same things.”

Since that time, Dr. Kumar has spoken at three of Chopra’s events. He says it’s been an invaluable experience, and while he’s gleaned a number of lessons from these events, one of the most important is simple: “I’ve learned to keep putting my ideas out there. There are no perfect ideas. If the ideas are good, they become refined and therefore more useful in the heat of the spotlight.”

Dr. Kumar’s latest idea is coming in the shape of a book on anxiety and how poorly managed anxiety and stress contributes to disease. In an effort to keep his healthcare colleagues from heading down that path, Dr. Kumar says he’ll continue offering his month meditation, which he hopes offers not only relief but empowerment to members of the team.

“There’s always a lot more to know, there’s always a lot more to experience,” he says. “And sometimes as we branch out and experience more things, the things that we already know get seen in a new context and new light and changes how we experience our lives.”

If you’re looking for a change or an employer who supports you, head over to sentaracareers.com. We’re looking for qualified candidates to join the team.

Imagine helping a person after their darkest hour. That’s the reality for the Cardiac Rehabilitation team at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.

Every day, team members work with patients who have suffered life-altering heart episodes. That’s why what they do is recognized during National Cardiac Rehabilitation Week, which runs from February 11^th -17^th.

For Nelly Morgan, those services were vital.

Less than a year ago, the mother of five suffered a heart attack. She was 49 years old at the time and didn’t realize what was happening.

“I just thought I was having acid reflux,” says Morgan, thinking back on that night last April.

She remembers that evening clearly. “Every Sunday, my daughter and I watch ‘The Walking Dead.’ We were all excited for the season finale,” she says.

Morgan says during the show, they were watching, jumping up and down and screaming at the television. She didn’t even realize something was going wrong until she tried to go to bed.

“I have GERD, so I just thought it was acid reflux and kept drinking water.”

But after several antacids and glasses of water, Morgan wasn’t so sure. “I didn’t want to wake my husband and have him take me to the hospital. I was feeling embarrassed. What if it was just heartburn?”

But after nearly two hours and no relief, her body gave some signs she just couldn’t ignore.

“My left arm was tingling and numb,” she says. “It went from my arm to my neck to my jaw, and all of sudden I felt this weight on my chest, like 20 people were sitting on it.”

Morgan’s husband rushed her to the Emergency Department at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge. When the team learned of her symptoms, she was immediately rushed back for care.

“They hooked me up to the machine and said, ‘Yes, you are having a heart attack.’ I just started crying. I thought, ‘Oh My God, I’m going to die.’”

The Prince William County resident didn’t die. Dr. Berenji, an Interventional Cardiologist with the Sentara Heart & Vascular Center, performed a Cardiac Catheterization procedure on her clogged artery. Morgan spent the next five days in the hospital before starting therapy and turning her life around with the help of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center. 

At first glance, the rehab center looks like any other gym. There are treadmills, recumbent bikes, an elliptical and weights. But one thing you’ll get here that you won’t with a traditional gym is a trained team of nurses monitoring your every heartbeat and watching your every step.

“Our goal is getting those patients into a safe exercise program and returning them to their lives,” explains Pamela Rozmajzl, RN. “We have an actual program. There is a progression we go through for each patient. We assess where they are and build from there, increasing along the way.”

In addition to introducing more physical activity into a patient’s life, the rehab has an educational component to improve the quality of life with psychological, physical and educational support after a heart attack or heart procedure.

“We have various classes on everything from medications and their possible side effects to diet changes and stress management. We also educate them on how to safely progress with their exercises once they leave our 12-week program,” says Rozmajzl.

For Nelly Morgan, this was a period of mixed emotions. She reached a milestone by turning 50 but was scared of having another heart attack. She realized she had a number of risk factors, including stress and heredity.

“Heart disease runs on my father’s side of the family,” she says. “He died of a heart attack. His parents died of heart attacks. He had two older brothers and they died of heart attacks.”

Morgan thought because she was a woman she had less chance of following in the family footsteps than male relatives. But in addition to genetics, Morgan also realized her diet could have played a role in her condition.

“I used to buy frozen food. I never read the back of boxes. The sodium intake in those lunches I would eat all week…they’re small portions. You think, no big deal. But if you add up a whole week’s worth, you realize, ‘I just ate a whole box of salt!’”

Things have now changed. This full-time wife, mother and student watches her salt intake, gave up soda and has added more vegetables to her family’s life, while doing away with processed foods. As she approaches the one year anniversary of her heart attack, Nelly Morgan is a new woman. She bought a treadmill and walks in the morning and at night, and she tries to have more physical activities for the family. It’s all a part of her new heart-healthy lifestyle.

“I don’t want to miss important events in my family’s life,” she says. “I want to see my daughter graduate from high school and my twins get through kindergarten. It’s those events you want to be around for. So they (my family) play a big part in this transformation.”

And, Morgan says, she couldn’t have made this transformation without the help of the Cardiac Rehab team. “They gave me the tools to change my life and be healthier.”

To learn more about the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center or find a cardiologist near you, call 1-800-SENTARA or go to Sentara.com.