When Josephine Herndon left home for an afternoon of Christmas shopping, she had no idea her outing would become such a physical ordeal.

“I wanted to buy gifts for my grandchildren,” says Herndon, 77, of Rochester Hills. “Because the parking lot was crowded, I had to walk a long way to the store. By the time I made it to the sidewalk I was unusually tired and completely out of wind. I had to sit for at least 10 minutes to catch my breath. Then I had to hold onto a shopping cart so I could walk. When I finished shopping, I didn’t think I could make it back to my car. When I did, I was exhausted and waited another 10 minutes to catch my breath.”

Herndon’s unusual bout of fatigue was caused by mitral valve regurgitation in her heart. For people with this condition, the leaflets or flaps of the mitral valve separating the left atrium and ventricle don’t close properly. Blood then leaks backwards through the valve with each heartbeat, causing the heart to work harder to circulate blood. If left untreated, the condition can lead to congestive heart failure.

Herndon made arrangements to see heart specialists at Beaumont Hospital. After a comprehensive series of tests, George Hanzel, M.D., director of valvular and congenital heart disease at Beaumont Hospital, enrolled Herndon in a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a revolutionary new procedure that repairs the mitral valve without open-heart surgery.

Beaumont is one of just 38 medical centers in North America – and the only one in metro Detroit – involved in the MitraClip study. During the two-hour procedure, a catheter is inserted through the patient’s groin area and guided through the femoral vein to the affected area of the heart. Then the MitraClip, a tiny device made of non-corrosive metal and fabric, is guided into place and attached to the leaflets of the mitral valve. Once it is properly secured and attached, the catheters are removed. The entire process is monitored with echocardiography, and the patient only requires general anesthesia.

In April 2008, Dr. Hanzel and his team inserted a MitraClip device in Herndon’s heart to repair the mitral valve. She was home less than 48 hours after the procedure. Within weeks she resumed her active lifestyle, including running errands, something she was afraid to do before the procedure.

“I do my own shopping, vacuuming, laundry and housecleaning – even going up and down the stairs at home whenever I want,” Herndon says. “I don’t feel the fatigue I had before. I’m still amazed at how they could put the MitraClip in my heart without surgery. Who knew how much a tiny little device could affect your life?”