I was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse it caused me to be tired constantly I would have
trouble breathing it compromised everything that I did I really enjoy walking and that's one of the
things that I missed for quite a while so my name is Paul powers I'm 57 years old I'm from Lombard
Illinois about 13 months after my first mitral valve repair I noticed the shortness of breath
was coming back again I came back in to see dr. McCarthy and as we had discussed in the beginning
that you know there would be some challenges with trying to repair it and we decided at that
time it was time to replace the valve I enjoyed many years with my mitral valve replacement and
then in December of 2015 I noticed that I was getting tired again I could not walk as far as
I had been walking we found out that the valve was failing again mr. powers is a very special
case and that he's had already two previous cardiac operations both initially very successful
but later on went on to fail we thought that a valve and valve receiver would be a very good
procedure for him especially because it would be a difficult reoperation procedure I'm Chris
Malay sorry I'm an attending cardiac surgeon at Northwestern medicine in downtown Chicago Illinois
the biggest point for me was the northwestern put me at ease they explained the whole process
to me in a way I could understand it you know you go from the doctors down to the nurses to
the support staff everybody was there for you they were there to answer your questions one of
the the nicest things about the transcatheter valve and valve is there was no breaking of
the sternum there was no incision on my upper body whatsoever for lack of a better word low
impact on my system so the procedure of valve and valve procedure refers to a transcatheter
heart procedure in these cases patients have a previous surgical bio prosthetic or tissue
valve in place which is unfortunately failed and instead of doing repeat open-heart surgery
we can do a transcatheter procedure much like a TAVR procedure where we go inside
the artery and place the transcatheter valve inside the old surgical valve
the bellman valve was was hands down a much easier operation on me and on my recovery mr.
powers is doing great after the initial success with a transcatheter valve and valve procedure he
was discharged to home after a very short pier to stay in the hospital and return to normal
activities in a very short amount of time you know for me since I've had this procedure my life
has changed dramatically on Sunday I walked four and a half miles so you know to have a procedure
done on March 31st and to be able to walk four miles my goal was to by Labor Day to be able to
walk four miles again and on Labor Day I made that accomplishment the biggest part of having
a valve and valve and what I would suggest to other people is to talk with your doctors to
listen to what they say to take notes educate yourself on the procedure you're having done