Renowned pastry chef Henedina “Heny” Banzon Sison was used to a hectic yet productive schedule—the culinary demands of three restaurants, teaching her students at Heny Sison Culinary School, and managing 14 chefs, all of which were part of her daily routine.
Although she makes it a point to have her annual executive check-up on her birthday—May 14—she never imagined experiencing heart failure that would be a wake-up call for her.
“It’s called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or thickening of the heart muscle,” Sison told TheDiarist.ph. “There was no blockage, no clogged arteries. I just found it hard to breathe. Before, I could walk five rounds of the University of the Philippines (UP) oval. There was one weekend when I suddenly had difficulty breathing after only one round.
“I would walk in the parking area, and my vision would turn blurry. It was as if I would almost faint. I knew there was something wrong. I asked, ‘Is this the end of my career? Do I need to stop all that I’m doing?’ I’m not used to not doing anything.”
Before that happened, Sison was in consultation with her preventive medicine doctor, Dr. Rex Gloria, who regularly prescribed supplements. She was advised to consult a cardiologist, so she went to Dr. Emma Trinidad at Cardinal Santos Medical Center, who interpreted her medical tests.
Trinidad confirmed that Sison had a thickening of heart muscle. “There’s no cure for this,” Sison was told. “But you can consult this father-and-son cardiologist team in Boston. They do alcohol ablation. They would prescribe alcohol to be injected to your heart, so the muscles will be thin.
“But we couldn’t book an appointment. I had to call my nephew from the States if they could find a doctor who specializes in special heart conditions. Out of 500, I think there was only one patient who had this condition.
“I also consulted my cousin, Dr. Tony Dans, the professor of Dr. Kay Evangelista-Galindez, a heart failure specialist who trained in Singapore under Dr. Lin Wei Qin. There’s already a new, oral medicine that I could try, I was told. But it’s too expensive and not yet available here. No one carries the medicine here in Manila yet. That’s why I still go to Singapore.”
The medicine (Mavacamten, with the generic name Camzyos), also available in the US and Canada, costs P150,000, which lasts Sison six months. “But it’s double the price in the US, so we decided to get the medicine in Singapore,” Sison disclosed. “I took one tablet every day before for six months. But after they checked on me again, I improved, which is why I was advised to take one tablet every two days.”
Sison talked about her heart failure episode at the Council on Heart Failure last April 14 for Heart Failure Awareness Month, at the Comer Noche Restaurant at the Unilab Compound in Mandaluyong City.
Sison talked about her heart failure episode at the Council on Heart Failure last April 14 for Heart Failure Awareness Month
“Awareness is very important,” Sison said. “I think there are a lot who have this condition, although it is not yet detected. If thickening of your heart muscle is genetic, it can be there already. And there’s also age. Even in you have your annual medical check-up, nakakalusot pa rin.
“So the doctor advised me to have my two daughters checked also. They are 37 and 36. We all need education about our health, our body. I didn’t know what hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was until I was diagnosed.”
Her family became her support outside the kitchen. Her doctors and her team are also behind her. She can now delegate and trust her efficient team even more.
Sison is now allowed to exercise. There was no need for her to undergo surgery. “I’m back to my same routine,” Sison asserted. “I can walk again at the UP oval once or twice a week.”
She is also back to teaching cooking and baking at her Heny Sison Culinary School in Quezon City. She runs three restaurants—Victorino’s, Deo Gracias, and the new Italian restaurant, La Virginia, in Scout Rallos, all in Quezon City.
“I get more reflective now,” Sison said. “I am more appreciative of what I do now in my craft. I learned how to listen to my body. I learned how to pace my schedule and my activities. Before, I was obsessive-compulsive. I went to every restaurant. But I have a good team, so I regularly check on them. I just oversee.
“It’s not the end of your story. You can still live a long life. You just have to take care of yourself and learn how to listen to your body.”
Sison starts her day with prayer at 6 in the morning. “I start working by 9 o’clock,” Sison said. “I’m teaching in the restaurant. There are students from the US, so we start at 9 am.
As part of her cardiovascular care, Sison has resolved to always take care of her body and have a regular check-up.
Heart failure is an urgent national health threat. The Philippine Heart Association (PHA) Council on Heart Failure, a group of heart and heart failure (HF) specialists, are rallying to confront HF as an urgent and growing national health threat.
The call was made in observance of Heart Failure Awareness Week with the theme “Educate, Innovate, Empower.” The event underscored a clear and pressing reality. HF is no longer a distant clinical diagnosis confined to textbooks or end-stage care. It has become a steadily rising public health burden that demands earlier recognition, stronger systems of care, and sustained collective action across all levels of the healthcare system.
Council on HF chair and national HF network director Dr. Erlyn Demerre said, “An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. The goal should be early diagnosis and timely management, so patients do not travel down the road from mild HF to severe and disabling disease.” HF affects an estimated 64 million people worldwide, progressing quietly over years rather than presenting as an acute condition.
“We are focusing on heart failure because its prevalence continues to rise,” said PHA president Dr. Walid Amil. “There are many important updates in the management and treatment of heart failure that healthcare professionals need to learn and keep up with.”
