Voice-over:
Seven-year-old Yankee, a mischievous Labrador retriever, couldn’t keep her paws off the
people-food last Halloween. The Stazzone (stuh-zone) family of Satellite Beach had grilled steak kabobs for dinner. And while the parents helped the kids get into their trick-or-treat costumes, Yankee snatched a kabob from the counter, swallowing it, bamboo skewer and all. Yankee threw the meat back up and a trip to the vet yielded up part of the skewer. It was assumed that Yankee would harmlessly pass the rest of the small spear. But by new year’s eve, Yankee appeared to be back in trouble. She’d lost lots of weight and her deteriorating condition pointed toward possible bone marrow cancer.
Mary Stazzone / Yankee’s owner:
“We thought that this was going to be it. She’s a very young dog, only seven years old, but it’s amazing that she’s OK!”
Voice-over:
Amazing was the discovery made when the Stazzones drove Yankee to the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine on fears she’d be needing cancer treatments. Another listen to her chest revealed a slight heart murmur. And the follow-up echocardiogram yielded the source of the trouble—a five inch long section of the kabob had apparently punched through her esophagus on the way down and eventually lodged itself between the right atrium and right ventricle of Yankee’s heart. Dr. Mark Bleiweis is director of the University of Florida’s new congenital heart center. Although he normally performs open heart surgery on the ailing hearts of human patients, he came on board to perform a heart bypass operation on Yankee and remove the kabob.
Dr. Mark Bleiweis / UF heart surgeon:
“Heart surgery is heart surgery and the dog heart very much resembles the human heart, so I felt very comfortable participating—especially because this is someone’s family member.”
Voice-over:
And family ties were what motivated the Stazzones to pursue this rare treatment for Yankee. Save for some permanent damage to one of her heart valves, Yankee’s prognosis for a long life, playing with the Stazzone’s three daughters, is good.
Mary Stazzone / Yankee’s owner:
“Yankee’s part of the family, we love her. We have three little girls and they love her tremendously so if we were able to do something, we wanted to do everything that we could to make her better because she’s been wonderful to us!”
Voice-over:
At the University of Florida Health Science Center, I’m Mike Garrison
