Former New York City Mayor, Ed Koch, Prepares For Heart Valve Replacement

June 17th, 2009

The list of public figures needing heart valve surgery in 2009 continues to grow.

So far… Barbara Bush, Robin Williams, Aaron Boone, the Sultan of Malaysia and King Constantine of Greece have had valve repair or valve replacement surgery during the past six months. Now, I just learned that Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, is going to have heart valve replacement surgery due to aortic valve disease.

“Whatever God wants, God will have,” Koch, 84, told the New York Daily News Wednesday by phone from his room at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he is set to undergo a heart valve replacement in the coming days. “If He wants me to hang around, I’ll hang around. If He wants to have some legal [or political] advice, He’ll take me,” Koch said.

Ed Koch – Heart Valve Surgery Patient

As for the hospital experience, Ed Koch cheerfully reported, “the food’s delicious here.” And he’s got a room with a view: “I’m looking at the Hudson – oh, wait a minute, Henry’s going by… Henry Hudson. He’s waving,” the octogenarian joked.

Koch went into the hospital on Monday, June 15, for a routine angioplasty to improve his heart’s blood flow. However, doctors decided not to perform that procedure, saying Koch instead needed an aortic valve replacement to address damage caused by his 1999 heart attack.

Koch – who is staying busy writing correspondence and commentary while he waits to go under the knife – says he trusts in his doctors and isn’t worried about the outcome.

Of the procedure, Ed Koch said, “Almost everybody who reaches 80 has a problem with their heart valves.” The former three-term mayor says the operation date is not set in stone, but Friday seems likely.

Keep on tickin Ed!

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About The Author: Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. This unique book integrates clinical research with the personal experiences of 135 former patients to help future patients and their caregivers better understand the problems, the opportunities and the realities of heart valve surgery. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.