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I like to garden, I like to see things grow. I have a few chickens that I take
care of, I have three heifer cows. My name is Tony Sciturro. I'm 88 years old.
I don't feel it! I don't even think about it. When we moved from Colorado to North Carolina,
I was having a problem just walking down to the chicken coop and back and that
was huffing and puffing and ah, we went to the lung specialist. Through a battery of
tests he said it's not your lungs that your heart.
[Music] Tony Sciturro is a fantastic man and a
remarkable gentleman, just full of energy. He's 88 going on 58! We first met him
though, when he was quite limited from his disease. He had noticed that he was
really slowing down and so, when someone who's so active really starts to feel
like they slow down, I think a lot of people say well I'm just aging, but it's
not always age. Severe aortic valve stenosis is a process where the aortic
valve, which is the main valve in the heart, begins to thicken and calcify and
no longer opens very well - and it causes a lot of stress on the heart. And in some
cases with severe aortic stenosis, it can really take a lot out of a patient, make
them feel short of breath, make them feel tired, you can't do the things that they
usually felt like doing. And we knew that so many patients were not going for
open-heart surgery because of the fear of having open heart surgery or the very
real risk of taking generally older patients, who are typically frail with a
lot of other medical problems to the operating room. And Dr. Vavalle
explained to me that valve was not opening and closing properly with every
heartbeat like it should. He told me about this new procedure, we'd like to
perform this surgery and put you a new valve.
TAVR stands for transcatheter aortic valve replacement - it's a minimally
invasive way to replace a diseased aortic mouth by compressing an
artificial valve onto a small catheter, that then is delivered through the blood
vessels into position and then the valve is then expanded into position pushing
aside the old diseased mouth and the new valve begins to work immediately.
Went into recovery there and was only there a short time and everything went
so good I kind of begged him to let me go home the next day and he said okay
you can go home. The clear benefit to transcatheter valve replacement over
open-heart surgery is the recovery time - they go straight home and they're really
back to their normal business within a few days. When I got home, I noticed
immediately that I could breathe easier - I was walking up and down from the
chicken coop, I worked in my garden, I fed the cows. I'm able to do everything I
want to do. It's very exciting field and it's really a wonderful way to treat
patients without having them have to go through a traditional open-heart
operation. The patients that are good candidates for this procedure are those
who have severe aortic valve stenosis and are felt to be higher risk for
open-heart surgery and we think can get a really good result with these less
invasive valves.
I think Dr. Vavalle saved my life, I really do and ah, I’m gonna send him some
vegetables! They’re all just wonderful people - the nurses, the doctors, the hospital. UNC
just treated me great. I would recommend UNC Medical Center to
anybody, anywhere, anytime!
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