1984 March Madness

In March of 1984, the GoGo's were back at their Los Angeles rehearsal studio getting ready for an upcoming tour. Things were looking up.

However - Gina recalled that while in England she found herself often getting sick and tired.   So she made it point to see a doctor once she was back in the States. 

• Gina's Heart Skips a Beat
  
• Palm Springs Weekend

Bean brought down by a broken heart

During the exam Gina's doctor detected a heart murmur. One side of her heart was stronger than the other. So he strapped electrodes to her chest with a tape recorder to monitor her heatbeat.

Photo by Lynn Goldsmith Philadelphia PA

Gina recalls that two days later -while at rehearsal, she got a phone call from her doctor. He wanted her to come in to the office to discuss the results. Gina, historically the hypochondriac, knew something was wrong right away. She started to cry.  The girls were very concerned about her.  They all drove with her over to Cedars Sinai get the test results and lend support.

Doctors determined that she had a hole in her heart the size of a marble.  It was a congenital birth defect called an atrial septal defect. The disease had caused the left side of her heart to swell to twice the size of the right side. 

She was told it would be best to have surgery as soon as possible. It she waited too long the effects would be irreparable and possibly life threatening.  Lucky for her she was in great physical shape from years of drumming. 

However, upon hearing the news, Gina started to break down and cry. The others were hysterical. She decided to have the operation as soon as possible. (10 days later)

Palm Springs Weekend

The day after Gina got the prognosis,  the girls rented a Cadillac Eldorado convertible and a Jaguar XJS and wisked her off the Palm Springs. 

They thought she needed some cheering up and they wanted to help her take her mind off the impending surgery. 

They brought all the drugs and booze they could muster up out to the desert. In their convertables they cruised around the desert, drank margaritas, went to the spa and to the discos.  But they did admit they toned down the partying a bit since they were worried about Gina's heart. 

Ten days out of the diagnosis, Gina Schock went into the operating room.

At the end of  March, with family and friends around her -  

...the surgeons pulled her rib cage apart and her heart out of her body so they could sew up the hole. A plastic surgeon close it so the scar would be minimal with time.(Boston Globe article by Steve Morse)

Gina spent the next several weeks at home recovering.  The Go-Go's put off their tour for three months to let Gina recover completely. The U.S. tour was now set to start in June in Detroit

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