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>> My name is Ron Roulette.
>> My name is Karen Roulette.
>> We live in a very rural place, in, western North Carolina.
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We do a lot of walking around here.
We heat with wood.
And so, we have to split logs and have to carry wood in.
It's a very physical lifestyle.
I've had hypertension for a number of years.
And, because of that and my age, my primary
care doctor felt that I should have an ultrasound.
>> The, the real slammer came last year, when
he got the diagnosis of a much enlarged aorta.
Kindly known as the Widowmaker, which does not make your family feel very good.
>> I talked with a couple of doctors about
procedures, and got a second opinion actually at Johns Hopkins.
>> The abdominal aorta.
Usually the aorta below the kidney arteries.
Starts to enlarge with aging, or with Atherosclerosis and over time the
normal diameter of the aorta; which is about the size of a
garden hose will enlarge to closer the size of can of soda
or even larger; and at that level we call it an aortic aneurysm.
>> There were two basic options, one was
the fenestrated graft; which would be put on the
inside Of the aorta or the other option
was to actually open me up through the abdomen.
It was pretty clear to us that we wanted to go with
the fenestrated graft mainly because of the invasiveness of an open procedure
and the, length of recovery And especially since we were traveling away to have this
procedure done, the idea of, having to stay away longer.
Having a more complicated return home, and then, you know,
a longer and more complicated recovery made it pretty clear.
>> I Met and talked to Dr. Black and I was
very impressed and decided that's where I wanted to have my surgery.
I got a call that it had arrived in Baltimore so my wife and I went up there
immediately and two days later, I was admitted to the hospital for surgery.
>> The key about the fenestrated stint graft technology is that.
The stint itself instead of being a straight
cylinder that is placed inside the aorta, it
is now a cylinder that has two or
three individual windows drilled or fabricated into the device.
Those little windows will line up with the kidney arteries or the
artery that supplies the intestine and allows us to bring the stent higher.
up the abdominal aorta, where the aorta's healthier, so a healthier piece of
aorta with a more normal diameter is gonna give us the best long-term outcome.
Placing the stint was very straightforward.
It is in most patients, and it will fit
into the patient perfectly and the procedure goes smoothly.
And that's exactly how it went for Dr. Rowlett.
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two weeks, or so, after I was pain free, and able to
walk a mile a day, and increase that to a couple miles, a day, about the third week.
Now that I'm three months post surgery, I'm doing everything that I ever did
back when I was in my prime.
We were quite certain that this was going to work out well, and it did.
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