Successful treatment at Alta Bates Summit keeps Scott Holmes of Livermore (shown with his son, Ryan) in the game — as a baseball, softball, and basketball coach and as an operating room nurse.

Scott Holmes puts his heart into his job and his pastimes — and he’d be the first to tell you he’s lucky that he can. Come spring or summer, when he’s not in the operating room plying his skills as a registered nurse, he’s working his magic on the diamond, coaching his son’s Little League baseball team and his daughter’s fast-pitch softball squad.

Holmes’ pursuit of his personal and professional passions was in jeopardy back in 2006. He’d suffered for several years from atrial fibrillation, a cardiac rhythm disorder that causes the atria (upper chambers of the heart) to quiver. Like others with the condition, he was at risk for blood clots and life-threatening strokes.

When drugs and electric shock treatments failed to maintain a normal heart rhythm, Holmes was referred to Steven Kang, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. At one of the Summit Campus’ state-of-the-art cath labs, which have benefited from Foundation support, he underwent cardiac ablation. In this nonsurgical procedure, Dr. Kang threaded a catheter through a vein up into Holmes’ heart, where radiofrequency energy was applied to destroy the abnormal tissue.

“His recovery went very well,” says Dr. Kang, who says he sees a direct connection between philanthropy’s support of Alta Bates Summit technology and positive patient outcomes. “We stopped all of his medications and he hasn’t had any atrial fibrillation in two years. That’s what we hoped for.”

“I have 10 times the energy I had before and feel a whole lot better,” adds Holmes. “At Summit, I was treated like royalty. Everyone was calm, reassuring and knew exactly what to do. I sing their praises all the time. It was a life-altering experience.”