Naomi Cline

Naomi Cline is a patient who'd had a heart valve replaced that failed in only three years.

Valve Replacement
Naomi had her tricuspid valve replaced with a porcine valve.

Valve Failure
Three years later, her valve started to fail, so she came back to the hospital to have it replaced again. Burke was concerned about how quickly her valve had failed, but she was unconcerned. She was excited about having gotten married since her previous surgery and said she was excited about her life. They started looking into reasons why her valve might have failed so quickly. Naomi denied drug use, but because of her euphoria, the doctors believed she was lying, so they ran a tox screen.

Her tox screen was negative, so they scheduled her for her valve replacement. Meredith then spoke to Sophie's husband and decided to run a second tox screen after he shared his concerns about her constant euphoria.

Her second tox screen was also negative, but her serotonin level was extremely high. Burke put together that she had a carcinoid tumor in her lung, which had also caused the asthma she developed after her first surgery. The tumor was causing her euphoria and had also made her valve fail. They scheduled a tumor resection.

Romantic
Naomi met her husband, Tom Cline, in a grocery store. They later got married. When she was constantly euphoric, he became concerned, because he didn't believe anyone could naturally be that happy all the time.

Notes and Trivia

 * She was 43 at the time of her hospitalization.