Heart Valve Surgery | About

About

I’m a double valve repair open heart surgery survior.  My heart surgery was necesiated by a pacemaker lead extraction procedure gone badly wrong.

My tricuspid valve was severely damaged while the cardiologist was attempting to extract a fractured pacemaker lead.  When the accident first happened, I was told that the procedure had gone well and that both leads had been successfully extracted and new ones had been implanted along with a new Medtronic pacemaker.

I was sent home to recover from what should have been a minor procedure, but I didn’t recover, instead, I gained 16 pounds of fluid in 3 days, went into congestive heart failure, developed a grossly enlarged heart, and went into near constant atrial fibrillation. Additionally, I felt awful, I could hardly walk; literally, I almost died.

All of this domino effect took place because the tricuspid valve was reguritating so severely that my heart couldn’t keep the blood flowing as it had before the medical mishap occurred.

My original pacer had been implanted more than thirteen years ago to help control an electrical heart problem call Tachybrady syndrome.  The condition didn’t alter my life in anyway, I ran, hiked, walked my dogs, remodeled houses and did anything that I wanted to do.

In fact, my condition was so well controlled that I didn’t even think about it anymore.  I occasionally had to have the pacemaker checked, but that was it.  At the age of 67, I looked ten years younger, and was in excellent health until the unfortunate error happened in the cath lab that day.

I started writing this blog as a way of letting my friends and family know what was happening to me heart wise, but then it occurred to me that thousands upon thousands of people are facing heart valve surgeries every single day, and that maybe by reading about all the things that happened to me during my months of heart valve surgery and recovery might help someone else to have an easier, more informed surgery and recovery.  To that end, I continue to post to this heart valve surgery blog.

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