>> I was diagnosed in 2011 with aorta stenosis, and they were going to replace the aorta by
doing a TAVR, and then they was like, well, that was just -- they couldn't do it, so they
opened me up.
Dr. Conte did.
He was the last doctor that I saw at John Hopkins.
>> You look great.
>> What's up?
>> Great to see you.
>> How's everything at home?
>> Good, good.
So what's the magic number?
>> Back to three of them.
>> So I contacted Dr. Conte's nurse and says, "I'm following him to Hershey," and he says,
"Come on, I'll take care of you."
Because I knew he was the only one that knew my situation and that was willing to do what
it took to help me.
>> She absolutely had aortic stenosis.
She also had left ventricular outflow tract stenosis as well.
In fact, to call it "stenosis" is not actually accurate.
It was underdeveloped.
It would be the right size for someone who was probably a child, but not for a fully
developed adult woman.
In this situation, she really wasn't a candidate for standard conventional operation.
She would have needed a very complicated operation.
Well, before transcatheter valves, or TAVR, came on to the scene, one company made this
elbow, because it just wasn't used that often.
I went and reached out to the representatives from this company and they helped me look
throughout the United States and Europe and Asia for over a year and we could not find
any of these apical connectors.
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Penn State is renowned for building artificial hearts.
In fact, they were one of the early developers of artificial hearts, so I thought, you know,
we needed to do something for this woman who really was not a candidate for anything else
and she was either going to die because of this or we were going to build one of these
apical connectors.
So I went up to Gus Rosenberg and I said, "Hey, Gus," you know, "can you build this
for me?"
And I don't remember the exact words, but it was: "Are you kidding me?
I could build it in my sleep," you know.
"How do you want it built?"
And he opens his drawer and shows me all these different widgets that he's made over the
years.
And so from his mechanical engineering and device manufacturing standpoint, it was a
piece of cake.
But then to put it in a human, you have to get FDA approval.
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>> He treated me as if I was his family member.
And he just talked to me and said to me, "This is what we want to do.
This is what I think you should do.
What do you think?"
>> When you're a cardiac surgeon, you look at every patient as it's your job, right?
You have to look at it like you are a craftsman or a technician and that's what your job is.
And whether we're doing this or we're reconstructing someone's mitral valve or their aortic root
or whatever we're doing, that's our job.
Well, I think you look great.
I mean, honestly, you look the best I've seen in two years?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> In two years.
>> When everything started.
I know for a fact that if it wasn't for Dr. Conte and his team taking the time to go to
the FDA and medical board to making the blueprints, without this valve that he took his time to
do and plan for me, I would not make it.
I would have not been here.
I -- Dr. Conte saved my life.
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