Marcie Mainstaolo, a mother of two from Loveland, was in her 20s when she was in a car accident. While at the hospital, doctors noticed she had a heart murmur, which eventually led her to undergo a rare form of open-heart surgery, known as the Ross Procedure, on Thursday at the Hospital Christ.
This procedure, which is usually done in very young children, is becoming more common in young people under the age of 50. Extremely technical surgery performed by only a handful of surgeons in Tri-State.
“The pounding heart is just the sound they hear.” M Disaster said. Echocardiogram, where you can actually see your heart and that’s where they looked at all the valves and they found out that I had a mitral valve.
Doctors discovered she had heart disease, mitral regurgitation.
At the time, it was announced that her condition would only need to be monitored annually for the rest of her life and potentially surgery in her 70s.
Instead, she learns her valve is broken and that if she doesn’t act soon, she may not be alive in five years.
After some medical opinion, she presented herself to Christ Hospital surgeon Dr. J. Michael Smith, who said she was an excellent candidate for the the Ross . procedure.
During this procedure, the surgeon removes the diseased valve and replaces it with the patient’s healthy pulmonary valve. Later, the pulmonary valve was replaced by a cadaver valve.
“Over the past 5 years, as more evidence has emerged that this is indeed a better surgery, better valve replacement for younger patients, the number of ross procedures performed in the United States has increased. , Canada and Europe are really growing,” said. Blacksmith.
Mirkaolo’s first cardiologist said the best option she had was mechanical valve surgery, but because she will have to take blood thinners for the rest of her life, Magsaolo is concerned about the quality. and the lifetime this option will provide.
Magsaolo said she is sharing her story to encourage others to check their hearts.
“If it weren’t for the car accident, I don’t know when I would have been diagnosed,” she said.
