The Day His Heart Spoke Up

As pastor of Visitation Parish in Kansas City, Missouri, Father Greg Haskamp shepherds a congregation of more than 1,400 families. He provides healing to those in need of spiritual, emotional, and physical support. He’s used to giving encouragement to congregants and community members in times when the odds seem impossible. But when Father Greg was diagnosed with a heart condition, he turned to his community—the heart experts at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute—for exceptional care.

Seeking answers

Beginning in late 2021, before joining Visitation, Father Greg noticed he couldn’t walk a block without having to stop and catch his breath; he couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded; and at night, his feet looked swollen.

He lived with the symptoms for awhile. After joining Visitation in 2023, he decided it was finally time to see a health care provider. A nurse practitioner at another hospital noticed he had a heart murmur and sent him for testing. The results revealed a condition called hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM), which makes it difficult for blood to circulate due to the heart muscle becoming excessively thick and stiff.

Physicians at the other hospital recommended Father Greg have a septal ablation—a minimally invasive, nonsurgical procedure completed using a catheter—or consider open heart surgery. Father Greg declined both procedures after talking with a friend who went through a similar experience and introduced him to heart failure specialists Michael Nassif, MD, and Timothy Fendler, MD at Saint Luke’s.

During the initial consultation, Dr. Nassif discussed the possibility of using a novel class of medications called myosin inhibitors through a clinical trial. The plan was to evaluate his response to this medical therapy first; if results were not satisfactory, they would then consider septal reduction therapy (SRT), such as surgery or ablation.

Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute provides the most comprehensive heart and vascular care in Kansas City, offering a full range of cardiovascular services, from disease prevention to heart transplantation, while using the latest in technology and innovative treatment options. Cardiovascular research is a major focus at Saint Luke’s, providing programs in the clinical areas of interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, heart failure and cardiac transplantation, cardiac electrophysiology, cardiac imaging, and preventive cardiology.

Fortunately, after starting on a myosin inhibitor called aficamten, Father Greg no longer had symptoms, and he would no longer qualify for—or require—the septal reduction surgery he had previously been told was necessary. His success reflects the broader impact of the study: over 90% of participants who were eligible for SRT at the start of the trial no longer met the criteria for surgery after being treated with this novel agent.

One of the last patients enrolled in the study, Father Greg is fortunate to be involved and says he’s faithful to it. “What the medication has done for me, it’s unbelievable,” he says. “The shortness of breath I was feeling hasn’t completely gone away, but it has been radically reduced. I can go for walks now. I can exercise. I can walk up the stairs. This medication has renewed my hope. It’s given me a sense of confidence about the future. I don’t need to limit myself, and I can still live a very active life. And at 62, I don’t have to come to terms with a new set of limitations.”

The positive outcome of the study has also improved Father Greg’s pastoral duties. He does a lot of reading and singing at Mass. Before he didn’t have enough breath to sustain vocals while singing but now, he breathes and projects his voice better.  

“I’m learning to take a deep breath again,” he says.

Speaking with an open heart  

Father Greg sees Dr. Nassif every three to four months for a blood draw, echocardiogram, and other tests. He says that Dr. Nassif and the heart care team have only shown him warmth, kindness, and concern.  

"I really feel like I'm going to see friends when I go in for my tests," he says. "From the surveys that I fill out to the echocardiograms, there is such care and welcoming among that group."  

Going through this health journey has allowed Father Greg to better place himself in the shoes of other people who are seeking healing. A few months ago, he gathered the courage to share his journey with his congregants.  

"It's been nice to share with people how life-changing my experience has been," he says. "Now I understand what a person feels when life has changed, and limitations you've come to accept are gone thanks to the innovative care of specialists and physicians.”

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