A healed heart: Ontario man celebrates Valentine’s birthday after near-deadly infection

After surviving a life-threatening heart infection and undergoing emergency surgery, an Ontario man is celebrating both his recovery and his birthday on Valentine’s Day.

Glenn Dennis, 61, said it felt like he was drowning last October when he could not catch his breath.

“I was scared … I really didn’t know what was going on,” Dennis recalled, adding there were no warning signs that anything was amiss with his health.

Dennis called 911 and was rushed to Scarborough General Hospital in Toronto. Tests showed an infection in his heart known as endocarditis.

Dr. Subodh Verma, a cardiac surgeon-scientist and professor at the University of Toronto, said the situation was very serious and life-threatening.

“He had a severe infection involving two of the main valves of the heart, endocarditis of the aortic valve and endocarditis of the mitral valve,” Verma explained. “There was actually pus and an abscess that had formed within the heart.”

“When we saw this patient, he was in profound heart failure,” Verma said.

But an emergency surgery gave Dennis the chance to live.

“At the end of seven hours he had two new valves and a heart that was free of any infection,” Verma said. “Then the fight really started in the ICU to make sure that he could actually get through the next few days.”