When Waleska Diaz-Collazo needed treatment for two rare and potentially life-threatening heart conditions, she found something powerful at BayCare’s St. Joseph's Hospital: a team of specialists working together to develop a personalized treatment plan. Through the BayCare Heart and Vascular Institute's collaborative approach, experts in congenital heart disease and complex vascular care combined their skills to provide advanced, coordinated heart care close to home.
For most of her life, Diaz-Collazo knew her heart story was complex. Born with coarctation of the aorta, a narrowing of the body’s main artery, she underwent surgery as a child and continued receiving specialized cardiac care into adulthood. Years later, doctors discovered a descending aortic aneurysm, a dangerous enlargement of the aorta.
“Carrying two complex and dangerous conditions in a single heart is terrifying,” said Diaz-Collazo. “It’s a heavy burden to carry.”
The key to Diaz-Collazo 's successful outcome was the collaboration between Luis Chavarriaga, MD, a vascular surgeon specializing in aneurysm repair, and Jeremy Ringewald, MD, a congenital heart disease specialist. Rather than treating each condition separately, the physicians developed a coordinated plan that addressed both problems during a single procedure. The team placed a covered stent graft in the healthy portion of her aorta to exclude the aneurysm from circulation, then expanded the graft to relieve the narrowing caused by her congenital heart condition.
For Dr. Ringewald, the ability to work side by side across specialties is what made St. Joseph’s Hospital uniquely equipped for Diaz-Collazo’s care. The BayCare Heart and Vascular Institute’s collaborative model allowed specialists from different disciplines to come together, develop a unified treatment strategy and address both conditions in a single procedure.
