Dr. Henry Solow has spent 35 years treating blood disorders and cancer at Markham Stouffville Hospital. In January 2025, he became a patient there after his heart stopped while he was on holiday, Oak Valley Health said in a patient story it shared on Feb. 18.
The haematologist-oncologist went into cardiac arrest at the top of a six-storey waterslide at a resort abroad. His son Max, an anaesthesiologist at a Toronto pain clinic, was just ahead of him on the platform. According to the hospital's account, Max performed CPR and then used the resort's automated external defibrillator to restart his father's heart.
A diagnosis he was born with
Solow was taken to a hospital in Nassau, Bahamas, where an echocardiogram pointed to the likely cause: bicuspid aortic valve disease, a condition he had never known about. A normal aortic valve has three leaflets. His has two, which can narrow the valve and force the heart to work harder. The Nassau hospital could not do further testing and advised him to return to Canada.
He said there was no question where he wanted to go.
Going to a downtown hospital didn’t even enter my mind, because MSH is my home.
— Dr. Henry Solow
An air ambulance brought him to the Markham hospital at 2 a.m. the next morning, and he was admitted to the cardiology unit. Attending cardiologist Dr. Russell Fernandes ran tests to confirm the diagnosis and make sure he was stable, noting that treatment for this kind of condition has to be handled carefully to avoid complications.
A partnership with St. Michael's
Under a cardiac care partnership Oak Valley Health set up with Unity Health Toronto in 2024, Solow was then moved to St. Michael's Hospital downtown for an angiogram, where a stent was placed in one of his arteries. A week later he had a transcatheter aortic valve implantation, in which a new valve is threaded in by catheter and set inside the old one.
He returned to Markham Stouffville to recover from the valve procedure, went home after three days and was back at work a month later. The hospital said patient health information moves between the two sites, so his care carried on without interruption.
The story comes as the hospital works to expand heart care for a fast-growing area. Oak Valley Health has said the number of cardiac patients at Markham Stouffville has risen 32 per cent since 2019. The hospital opened a Cardiac Device Clinic for patients with pacemakers in spring 2025 and has said it is working toward a higher level of cardiac program status, starting with the St. Michael's collaboration.
Valvular heart disease, the broader group of conditions that includes Solow's, affects about 2.5 per cent of Canadians, according to the hospital. It may cause no symptoms when mild, but left undiagnosed and untreated it can lead to stroke, heart failure, blood clots or cardiac arrest.
Solow said colleagues from across the hospital, including doctors, nurses and lab staff, came by to see him while he recovered. The story was first published by the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation.
