GOING HOME WITH A
NEW HEART A
t 34, Derrick Baker had no history of heart disease. In fact, the healthy young father of five had never had a major illness. This past December, however, he began to feel weak and nauseous. He was short of breath and had stomach pains. His wife, Tameka Reed, took MARGARITA CAMACHO, MD him to Newark Healthy Together
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A YOUNG FATHER’S UNEXPECTED HEART FAILURE WAS SUCCESSFULLY TREATED WITH A TRANSPLANT.
Beth Israel Medical Center (NBI), not far from their home. “He would walk past Newark Beth every day, but he’d never been there for treatment before,” Tameka says. “I figured it would turn out to be a stomach virus.” As doctors tested Derrick, they came to a conclusion that shocked him and Tameka: He had heart failure, had likely had undetected heart issues for years and was at risk of sudden death. “Sometimes a person can have cardiac problems but is able to tolerate them because of their youth
and physical fitness,” says Margarita Camacho, MD, Surgical Director of Heart Transplant at NBI and a member of RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. “While there’s no obvious sign of their heart issue, their hearts are actually barely functioning.” The cause of heart failure in such people is generally a mystery, although doctors speculate that there may be a genetic component. The team at NBI prescribed heart failure medications. After 10 days, just before Christmas, Derrick went home to Tameka and their five children—ages
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