Doctors To Close Hole In Bret Michaels' Heart
Jan. 24 2011, Published 2:20 p.m. ET
Poison rocker Bret Michaels is slated to undergo a cardiac catheterization to close a hole in his heart at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in his native Phoenix on Monday, Breaking Celebrity News has learned.
As previously reported, the Celebrity Apprentice winner was hospitalized on April 21, 2010, following a near-fatal brain hemorrhage and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital.
It was then doctors detected a hole in the heart, known medically as a patent foramen ovale.
Monday's procedure is not an emergency one, but rather a preventative measure against blood clots and further strokes, which the Unskinny Bop singer is more susceptible to with the hole in his heart.
Here's how it works: doctors will insert a catheter into a vein in Michaels' groin and guide wires into his heart, as well as a closure device that will remain there permanently.
The device, doctors said, will cease abnormal blood flow between the two chambers of the singer's heart, which is believed to have prompted his aforementioned health complications.