As many of you know, I started this website to educate, inspire and empower patients with heart valve disorders including mitral regurgitation, aortic stenosis, etc.

Three years later… It turns out that I am the one who is inspired by the patient stories of Randy, Sylvia, Patricia, Anita, Robin, Charles, John, Leslie, Steve, Jonathan, Mavis and so many others. Each one of these patient stories (shared previously in this blog) radiate the extraordinary human will to face heart valve disease and rise above it.

On that note, Rodney from North Carolina just emailed me his story. At 78 years of age, Rodney is currently in the middle of his recovery. Here is what he writes:

Adam,

This is to let you know I underwent aortic valve surgery and one bypass at the new heart hospital in Greenville, North Carolina on June 1, 2009. Dr. Randolph Chitwood, who is recognized as one of the outstanding heart surgeons in country, performed the surgery.

Rodney Trueblood – Heart Valve Replacement Patient

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As we have discussed, the competitive market for minimally invasive heart valve replacements and heart valve repair continues to heat up.

Earlier this week, we learned more about Edwards’ SAPIEN technology. Then came this interesting story about Medtronic and its Melody transcatheter pulmonary heart valve replacement solution. Did you see this?

The Associated Press reported that federal health advisers unanimously backed an experimental heart valve replacement solution from Medtronic as a safe and effective treatment for patients with a rare heart defect.

The Melody Heart Valve Replacement

The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of heart experts voted 12 to 0 in favor of approving the Melody Pulmonary Valve, although stent fractures were identified during the study. According to The Wall Street Journal, the FDA said stents – which are a part of the Melody device – fractured in 18% of patients in the study. The concern about such fractures is that parts of the device could break off and result in blood clots. Ultimately, the FDA believes there is a “low probability” that such fragments would cause blood clots.

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Elissa was recently diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation due to mitral valve prolapse.

In an email to me, Elissa writes, “Hi Adam – I’m going through the challenging process of picking a mechanical or tissue valve in case my valve can not be repaired. I know I’ll have to use Coumadin for the rest of my life if I go with a mechanical valve. Are there side effects of Coumadin that I should be aware of? If so, what are the common Coumadin side effects? Thanks for everything! Elissa”

Before answering Elissa’s question, I would encourage her (and perhaps you) to review a prior blog titled, “What Is Life Like On Coumadin?”. In the comments section of that blog, 20+ patients talk about their experiences of using Coumadin on a daily basis.

That said, the common side effects of Coumadin, according to MedicineNet, can be:

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As laughter is the best medicine, I thought you might enjoy this. Not sure it is really a joke though… More like a wonderful life lesson. (In particular, I think some Wall Street hedge fund managers, derivatives traders and mortgage loan officers could have learned something from this kid!)

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.”

The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?”

The boy takes the quarters and leaves the dollar.

“What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!”

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store and says, “Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?”

The boy licked his ice cream cone and replied, “Because the day I take the dollar, the game’s over!”

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Keep on tickin’ and laughin’!

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Since my own heart valve surgery, writing my book and launching this website, I have developed a huuuuuuuge interest in companies that develop, market and sell heart valve devices and medical equipment.

Ultimately, I believe their actions and announcements illustrate the surgical trends which directly impact patients with heart valve disease. So, for this reason, I constantly monitor companies like Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, St. Jude Medical and Intuitive Surgical to learn more about heart valve repair and heart valve replacement technologies. I then pass along that information to you here in this blog.

Earlier this week, Edwards Lifesciences, the largest heart valve replacement manufacturer in the world, released very strong quarterly earnings. However, beyond the financial numbers, the company made several comments about SAPIEN, Edwards’ minimally invasive heart valve replacement technology (see the video above) that I found interesting.

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