THE HEART IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING
Dr. Eric Fenstad
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
Cardiologist Dr. Eric Fenstad is excited to join the team at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Ne-Ia-Shing Clinic and provide care to the patients in the community. Dr. Fenstad has started seeing patients in Ne-Ia-Shing clinics once a month. As the need increases, he will be able to make more frequent appointments.
Dr. Fenstad has experience in treating patients with mild to severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary hypertension due to left-sided heart disease or lung disease, pericardial diseases, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and valvular heart disease, and he has advanced training in cardiac imaging with CT, MRI, Echocardiography, and Nuclear. He was the primary investigator on several pulmonary hypertension clinical trials and continues to be involved in pulmonary hypertension research.
Pulmonary hypertension is a “somewhat rare disease we learn very little about in medical school,” he said. It causes elevated blood pressure in the lung blood vessels. This can affect the right side of the heart, with symptoms that are very non-specific such as shortness of breath, chest pain, lightheadedness, passing out, swelling in stomach area or legs. Due to the unspecific symptoms, patients with pulmonary hypertension can often go undiagnosed. Dr. Fenstad has “prioritized patients with these symptoms to get them diagnosed earlier to help improve their quality of life and improve their longevity.”
He grew up in Fargo, North Dakota, and attended St. John’s University studying psychology and athletic training. He attended St. Cloud State to obtain a Master’s Degree in Psychology. After he finished schooling there, he took a job at Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was introduced to cardiology patients and participated in research trials helping as a coordinator. Then he decided he wanted to go to medical school. At that time, he also met his future wife.
While waiting to get into medical school, he found a research job in Oregon working under an allergist asthma doctor who “mentored me and taught me about medicine, about communicating with patients, about examining patients, and taught me a lot about the diseases that can affect people’s lungs, allergies and allergic responses,” he said.
He earned his medical degree at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health. He went on to a residency in Mayo Clinic Rochester in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease, finishing in 2015.
Family is very important to him. “I was blessed with being able to grow up in a close family where my grandparents lived near me. It was really important to be able to spend time with my grandparents. Some of my fondest memories are of just sitting on the porch and shooting the breeze with them and learning about their experiences.”
He is a husband and a father of four teenaged children. They moved to the Brainerd Lakes Area (BLA) where they can be close to both sets of grandparents in hopes his children have the opportunity to create the same type of life-long memories with their grandparents.
Dr. Fenstad previously held a position for seven years at Minneapolis Heart Institute in the BLA. He joined Essentia Health in 2022 and has enjoyed working with patients in the outreach communities to bring essential cardiology services to communities who may not be able to support a full-time cardiologist. Cross Lake, Pine River, Pierz, Grand Rapids, Duluth, and now at Ne-Ia-Shing Clinic. “I am really excited to be able to provide care to all of these small communities so people don’t have to drive to bigger cities for care.”
He said about Ne-Ia-Shing Clinic, “Wow! What a wonderful, beautiful facility,” he said. “What I hope is to bring my cardiology services to the Mille Lacs Band community to ease the burden of having to travel to other specialties, and to improve outcomes in the Indigenous populations, because we know that earlier disease treatments and prevention lead to better outcomes long-term.”
Dr. Fenstad believes in treating the whole body, mind, and spirit. “Our heart is connected to everything,” he said. “We need to take care of everything with a holistic approach.”
What is most important to him is getting to know and understand his patients, “because each patient is different. We can’t use the same recipe for every single person.”
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Fenstad, please call the clinic at 320-532-4163.