Santa visits AdventHealth's youngest patients, giving back to the hospital that mended his heart

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  • Kristi Powers
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John Hayes (Santa) thanks Dr. David Spurlock and team for stabilizing his decade-long battle with AFib.

‘Tis the season for John Hayes to suit up in his iconic red, furry suit and pay a special visit to pediatric patients and their families at AdventHealth for Children.

“To me, one of the biggest honors I can ask for is that someone asks me to come into their circle of family and friends and try to find a way to make them smile,” Hayes recently told the Orlando Sentinel.

Hayes has brought love, joy and the spirit of the season to so many children in the Central Florida community for almost 20 years, including to some of AdventHealth’s youngest patients over the years. However, earlier this year, the heart that has given so much, needed healing.

“(Atrial Fibrillation) AFib is the most common heart arrhythmia that we have,” said David Spurlock, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at AdventHealth Orlando. “You get these abnormal pathways on the back of the heart. This procedure eliminates those funny pathways so the heart can do what it’s meant to do.”

“I’m staying at 65-70 beats per minute and that hasn’t happened in 11 years,” Hayes told Dr. Spurlock, who along with Mahmoud Altawil, MD, performed the hybrid procedure back in June that would get him back to his jolly self.

Watch how AdventHealth's cardiac team helped this modern-day Saint Nicholas continue to spread holiday cheer.

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