MitraClip™ Patient Story

“After my MitraClip™ at Cottage, my recovery was quick,
and I felt like myself again.” – Maureen Groves

Maureen moved to Santa Barbara to attend UCSB, met her husband, Mark, there, and they have made Santa Barbara their home ever since. Maureen was a physical therapist for 37 years before retiring. These days, she lives an active life and enjoys regular hikes with Mark and their rescue dog, Maggie.

In October 2020, she was vacationing in Cambria when she stood up and suddenly had difficulty breathing. She felt a fluttering sensation in her chest, and her blood pressure jumped to 200/150.

Maureen called 911 and was rushed to a hospital in San Luis Obispo. From there she was referred to the Cottage Heart & Vascular Center and Michael Shenoda, MD, one of the center’s interventional cardiologists. She discovered the mitral valve in her heart was not opening and closing properly -- a condition known as mitral valve regurgitation, which causes blood to flow backward or leak in the heart.

At Cottage Heart & Vascular Center in Santa Barbara, Maureen learned she was a candidate for MitraClip™, a minimally-invasive procedure used to treat patients with her condition. In cases of mitral regurgitation, blood moving backward through the mitral valve is pushed into the lungs, increasing the workload of the heart and often causing fatigue and shortness of breath. If not treated, severe mitral valve regurgitation can cause arrhythmia -- an irregular heartbeat -- or heart failure.

Dr. Shenoda and his team performed the MitraClip™ procedure on Maureen at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, and Maureen made a fast recovery. “When I woke up after the procedure, I felt like going out and running,” she said.

“I had a great experience at Cottage, and I felt like I was with friends,” she said. “Everyone there made my experience super comfortable,” she said.

These days, Maureen is back to the life she loves, including those hikes with Mark and Maggie.