2 Responses to “Dear Oprah: An Open Thank You Note from Mellanie True Hills of StopAfib.org”

1. Mark // Dec 1, 2008 at 11:52 am

   We lost my father to AFIB last year in a french hospital in Bordeaux. My mother has now started a blog which is detailing our experience there.

   Just wanted to link to it in case your readers are interested in our experience with getting treated (and what went wrong) in Bordeaux.

   If you do read the blog, please post some comments as my mom could use some encouragement.

   http://thebutterflywidow.blogspot.com/

2. Mellanie // Jan 8, 2009 at 4:50 am

   Mark,

   Thanks for sharing this. My heart goes out to you and your family. It’s such a tragic loss.

   To me, it seems that the doctors at home were at fault for letting it progress so far without doing anything substantive for your Dad. By the time he reached Bordeaux, his afib may have progressed to the point that it was very difficult to deal with. We now know that “while doctors are fiddling, Rome is burning” and that more proactive treatment may be a better course. The longer it goes on, the harder it is to fix.

   I hope that your family’s tragic loss will save someone else from something similar. Thanks so much for your mother’s spirit and generosity in sharing this story.

   Mellanie