You might remember Shannon’s last email about diseased heart valves, pregnancy and child birth ^[1]. Well…. Here is her post-operative update:

Hey Adam!

I wrote to you several months ago about heart valves and pregnancy. I just wanted to send you a quick update!

I had my surgery on May 14th at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Doctor Ed Chen was my surgeon. I cannot say enough about how wonderful he and the Emory staff were to work with.

Dr. Chen replaced a section of my aorta to correct an aortic aneurysm. I have known my entire life that I have a bicuspid aortic valve ^[2], however, in surgery the surgeon discovered I actually have a unicuspid aortic valve (only one leaflet) ^[3]! FYI, the docs think I should be fine to have kids before replacing the valve!

I attached a picture of my incisions exactly one week after surgery (see above). Dr. Chen was very proud of his work (as he should be) and I was the talk of Atlanta because of the size of the incision and type of surgery.

I wanted to thank you again for your heart valve surgery book ^[4]!  It has made recovery for me and my support group much easier!

God Bless,
Shannon Coughlin

P.S. To leave a comment, please click here ^[5].