Heart Surgery Valve Blog
Welcome to my Heart Surgery Valve Blog for all things relating to heart valve repair and heart valve replacement. I started this blog about eight months ago following my aortic and pulmonary valve replacements (also known as the Ross Procedure).
My heart surgery valve replacements were performed by Dr. Vaughn Starnes at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. As you may have noticed, I also wrote a book titled The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery.
This blog, website and my book are designed to work together to help future patients and caregivers better understand the realities of heart surgery valve repair and heart surgery valve replacement.
I know that heart surgery can be frustrating, and honestly, quite scary - both for the patient and the caregiver. But, you should know something. Most patients will turn this lemon into lemonade.
“What do I mean? Turning lemon into lemonade?”
I recently conducted a survey of 78 former, heart surgery valve patients. I asked them a very simple question at the end of the survey. The question was, “On a scale of 1 (negative) to 10 (positive), how has heart valve surgery impacted your life?”
The results were amazing. See the graph below.

As you can see 46% of patients scored the impact of heart surgery - valve repair and valve replacement - as a “10″, the top score!!! Taken one step further, 88% of patients scored the impact of heart valve surgery as positive experience.
That is what I mean when I say that heart valve surgery patients turn lemon into lemonade.
If you would like to learn about more about my experience with heart surgery valve replacement, my research, or you would like to learn more about the 2007 survey results, you may want to read my book, The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery.
Keep on tickin!
Adam




