This Florida dad felt fit and healthy — until a doctor said he needed immediate surgery
CBSN
For decades, Phil Passen was an active runner and boxer. He jogged dozens of miles per week and regularly took park in competition, all while parenting his 9-year-old daughter and working in finance.
He felt fit and healthy — so when his primary care physician at New York University's Langone Health told him he had a congenital heart condition that had never been detected before, he was shocked.
"I went for my yearly checkup ... and my general physician caught that I had a heart murmur, and it sounded a bit abnormal," Passen, 53, said. "She referred me for further testing, just as a precautionary thing. They didn't find anything with a stress test, but then when they started doing the ultrasound, they discovered I had a bicuspid aortic valve."