When Gurmit Singh talks about Trillium Health Partners, he doesn’t mince words. “I owe my life to them,” he says without hesitation. His story backs him up.
Gurmit first came to Trillium Health Partners’ Emergency Department in November 2007 after a sudden episode of atrial fibrillation (an irregular heart rhythm). The cardiac episode frightened him, and it came as a surprise, given his active lifestyle. Although in his early 60s at the time, he maintained a full schedule as an airport limousine driver, who organized other drivers to ensure better working conditions. He also loved to spend time with his family and volunteer with charitable causes.
Cardiologists stabilized the rhythm of Gurmit’s heart and monitored his stenotic mitral valve: the narrowing of the valve between the left heart chambers, which minimizes or blocks blood flow into the heart’s main pumping chamber. They ultimately decided to treat him with cardioversion (a procedure that restores a regular heart rhythm) rather than invasive interventions. The decision gave him another 15 years of quality life. “I was leading a good life,” he recalls. “They bought me time.”
Gurmit Singh’s Sudden Cardiac Emergency
That time ran out in 2022, when specialists discovered that three of his heart’s valves were failing. Gurmit went straight from the Emergency Department to a full cardiac work-up under the care of cardiologist Dr. Mia Bertic. Her tests revealed he needed open-heart surgery.