Bret Michaels Diagnosed with Hole in His Heart

Although the fact that Poison frontman and "Celebrity Apprentice" finalist Bret Michaels' heart condition might cause a few to make jokes about understanding his "Rock of Love" reality shows a little better, the hole in Bret Michaels' heart is a serious problem and may have contributed to his 'warning stroke' earlier in the week. Shortly after doing his interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Bret Michaels checked himself back into the hospital, complaining of numbness on his left side. He was shortly diagnosed with having had a mini-stroke, which is usually seen as a precursor to a bigger, more malignant stroke to follow. At the same time, test results showed that one of the contributing factors quite possibly was a patent forum ovale, a hole in his heart. Doctors said it was congenital.

So how had Bret Michaels, who had been in the hospital for a broke nose (June's head injury at the 2009 Tony Awards), an emergency appendectomy (April) and a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage (again in April), not to mention being diagnosed as diabetic at the age of 6 and seeing doctors all his life, got to the age of 47 before anyone noticed that he had a congenital heart defect? The answer is simple: No one was looking for it.

According to Dr. NIeca Goldberg, a cardiologist at New York University Cardiac & Vascular Institute, a patent forum ovale, or hole in the heart, is something that doctors specifically test for and would be missed in any general battery of tests. It is only when young people have strokes, she told Fox News, that cardiologists look for such things.

"We see this in children," Goldberg said, "but the hole in the heart is supposed to close up before they come out of the womb. But it is common for adults where the hole has never closed up. It is congenital."

Bret Michaels had told Oprah Winfrey that he felt blessed to be alive and that he was making a quick recovery from his brain hemorrhage. He was upbeat on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," making jokes about himself and his condition.

But the brain hemorrhage was no joke, putting the "Celebrity Apprentice" finalist in the intensive care unit in one of the nation's best hospitals, Phoenix' St. Joseph's Hospital's Barrow Neurological Institute. After days of tests and being treated, Michaels was released from the hospital last week, but is currently undergoing treatment. Doctors at the institute insist that his subarachnoid brain hemorrhage was operable and treatable, even though they admit to never finding the source of the bleeding in Michaels' brain.

But are the two -- the brain hemorrhage and the 'warning stroke' -- related. Dr. Goldberg thinks it unlikely. "It is hard to connect the brain hemorrhage to the stroke," she noted, "but it is possible."

Although it is being reported that Bret Michaels isn't going to let his brain hemorrhage and the news about the hole in his heart keep him from the season finale of "Celebrity Apprentice," it is unknown how the news will affect his busy tour schedule. He had planned to hit the stage again at the end of May.

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Sources:

FoxNews.com