Action News Jax
by Lorena Inclan

Most people never know they have it, but for some, it can lead to a stroke in the prime of their life. That’s what happened to Julie Rotz. She was at home one night with her 4-year-old daughter when she heard a sharp noise in her head. “Sounds as if you're plugging in a microphone to an amplifier but you don't get it plugged in all the way, so it's the feedback,” Rotz said…Rotz discovered she’d been living with a condition called patent foramen ovale, or PFO. Mayo Clinic’s director of structural heart disease, Dr. Peter Pollak, said it’s a common condition. “Something around 2 billion people (are) walking around with a patent foramen ovale,” Pollak said.  Pollak, with the collaboration of a neurologist, helped treat Julie at Mayo Clinic.

Reach: ActionNewsJax is WAWS-TV/30, a Fox affiliate, and WTEV-TV/47 is a CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida.

Context: Peter Pollak, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic interventional cardiologist. Dr. Pollak is an expert in structural heart disease and percutaneous therapies for valve diseases as well as left atrial appendage closures and patent foramen ovale closures.

Contact: Kevin Punsky

Tags: ActionNewsJax, Dr. Peter Pollak, heart defect, Julie Rotz, stroke, Uncategorized