Well… What do you think?

Can humans be born and live without one or more heart valves?

My immediate reaction to that question would be, “Not a chance!”

Then again, we live in a world where anything is possible. On that note, Tori Higgins (pictured below) proves that humans can be born and live without a heart valve.

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This is somewhat unbelievable…

I just learned from Gideon S. that Dr. David Adams, Chairman of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, referenced my name and this website in the New York Daily News this morning!!!

In an excellent article titled, Weakened Mitral Valves Are Treatable, But Type Of Surgery Makes A Difference, Dr. Adams makes several, insightful points about mitral valve prolapse, traditional mitral valve surgery and recent surgical breakthroughs.

Then, in a section about patient education, the article states, “Dr. Adams also points people to www.heart-valve-surgery.com, an info-packed blog where former patient Adam Pick posts first person testimonials.”

If you’re not familiar with Dr. David Adams, here are some links that will help you learn more about this valve surgeon guru:

• About Dr. David Adams – New York Heart Valve Surgeon
• Mitral Valve Repair Video By Dr. David Adams
• Dr. Adams’ Website – http://www.mitralvalverepair.org/

Keep on tickin!

P.S. To leave a comment, click here.

Patients selecting mechanical heart valve replacements are typically required to monitor their INR levels (international normalized ratio) to prevent risks of blood clotting, hemorrhage or stroke.

To ease this process, home INR testing machines are now becoming more affordable and easy-to-use. That said, here is a patient testimonial from Margaret R. about her experience with a home INR testing machine she just received:

Dear Adam,

I just wanted to let you and everyone else know that I received my INR home machine last week. I had a nurse from the company come to my home and train me on it. It’s just wonderful fast and easy, start-to-finish is less then a few minutes and only requires one drop of blood.

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The term medical tourism is relatively new. But, more and more, I am hearing of patients traveling to places like India for surgical procedures including heart valve repair and heart valve replacement.

On this note, I recently saw a video about Robin Steele from Mobile, Alabama. Robin suffered from severe mitral valve regurgitation and a-fib (irregular heartbeats). After evaluating his options and his budget, Robin had mitral valve repair surgery in Bangalore, India at the Wockhardt Hospital, an associate of Harvard Medical International, under the care of Doctor Vivek Jawali, Chief Cardiac Surgeon.

This video describes Robin’s experience before, during and after his mitral valve repair in India. To watch this video, simply press the play button. Also, please make sure the volume on your computer is turned up.

As with any cardiac procedure – in any location – there are advantages and disadvantages. I can understand why patients like Robin utilize medical tourism to (i) save money and (ii) benefit from skilled surgeons, like Dr. Vivek Jawali. I can also understand why other patients (like me) chose to stay local for their valve surgeries.

I hope this video helps explain a little bit more about medical tourism and heart valve repair in India.

Keep on tickin!

Since posting Lisa’s mitral valve repair success story, my inbox has been flooded with questions about blood transfusions and blood bank safety like:

• When was the first blood transfusion?
• Who performed the first blood transfusion?
• Are there complications with blood transfusions?
• What are the blood transfusion guidelines?
• Are blood transfusions required during open heart surgery?

These are great questions. However, I’m not going to address all of these questions in a single, very long post. Instead, I’m going to answer these blood transfusion questions one-by-one over the next month in multiple blogs.

To start though, I’m going to write about the history of blood transfusions. Specifically, I am going to offer research about the first blood transfusion.

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