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<\/p>\nKatrina Sison was on her way to a volleyball game. But something felt off.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI just had shortness of breath, like really bad shortness of breath. I decided to go to the emergency [room] instead,\u201d Sison said.<\/p>\n
At 38, Sison, from Pickering, Ont., never suspected her heart might be in crisis. \u201cI got the ECHO (echocardiogram) exam, and the cardiologist told me that I would have to do surgery that day or the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDr. Subodh Verma (centre) poses with patients he treated and their families in a waiting room at St. Michael\u2019s Hospital in Toronto. Verma warns that heart disease can occur with no signs or symptoms and that people should understand their risk factors.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tKatherine Ward\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
St. Michael\u2019s Hospital cardiac surgeon Dr. Subodh Verma<\/a> said Sison had an ascending aortic aneurysm that was close to eight centimetres and rapidly expanding.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a catastrophic problem, and it was growing fast,\u201d Verma said. \u201cThey say time is muscle, but time was life for her \u2014 she was literally going to pass away if we had not operated on her.\u201d<\/p>\n Verma holds the Canada research chair in cardiovascular surgery<\/a> and is used to managing close calls and difficult surgeries on the operating table.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGet weekly health news<\/p>\n Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.<\/p>\n Tom Scherbluk, 58, from Alliston, Ont., another one of Verma\u2019s patients, also had no clue anything was amiss with his health. Last summer, he got a wakeup call.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore on Toronto \u201cI was at home, I was downstairs, just checking on some files, making sure that I was organized for the next day,\u201d Scherbluk recalled. \u201cSuddenly I was just out of the chair, on the floor in absolute agony.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe rapidly brought him to St. Michael\u2019s Hospital, where \u2026 I operated on him again almost all night to get him through,\u201d Verma said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t able to close his chest for the first few days because of the bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n Verma said undiagnosed high blood pressure<\/a> was a contributing factor in Scherbluk\u2019s episode, which ended up being diagnosed as an aortic dissection, a life-threatening tear in the aorta\u2019s inner layers that causes blood to rush through, resulting in further splitting.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThat tear really progresses every hour and gets worse and can lead to sort of death within the first 24 to 48 hours. It can lead to disabling strokes, it can lead to a heart attack, it could lead to kidney damage. It is one of the most important emergencies that we attend to,\u201d Verma said.<\/p>\n A new report<\/a> from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada says more than 8.2 million adults have been diagnosed with high blood pressure<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to the most current Canadian guidelines published in 2025, the definition of high blood pressure for adults is at or above 130\/80 mm Hg.\u201dRecent evidence shows a substantially increased cardiovascular risk starting at this revised threshold \u2026 and is stricter than previously recommended,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n \n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n![\"Receive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/healthiq.jpg\")
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