Video: Competitive Cyclist, Michael Gnatek, Salutes Dr. Massimiano After Mitral Valve Repair
As we have seen through the inspiring stories of Teppo Numminen (NHL hockey star) and Aaron Boone (MLB baseball star), several athletes have returned to professional sports after heart valve surgery.
Here is a great story about competitive cyclist, Michael Gnatek. At 43 years of age, Michael required mitral valve repair surgery due to a mitral valve prolapse. To treat his leaky heart valve, which caused a life-long heart murmur, Dr. Paul Massimiano from Inova Health System in Virginia used a minimally invasive approach.
One of the most amazing elements of Michael’s story is how quickly he was discharged from the hospital…. One day! However, please remember, each patient case is unique. As my research suggests, the average patient stay in the hospital is about five days.
Patient Days In Hospital Following Valve Surgery
I hope you enjoyed this video about Michael Gnatek and Dr. Paul Massimiano.
Keep on tickin!
P.S. Would you like to celebrate your surgeon? Now, you can join over 450 patients who have shared their surgical experiences at our new Heart Valve Surgeon Database. Click here to learn more.
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 the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of 78 former valve surgery patients to help patients and 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.
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November 14th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Congrats to you Micheal! I too had Dr. Massimiano as my surgeon who performed MVR and he’s wonderful. Almost a year later my scar is almost gone. The chest tube scar is more predominantly showing than the actual surgical scar! And yes I was just in Innova Fairfax only a short time too (2 1/2 days). It’s amazing the wonders of modern medicine.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sherri,
So happy to hear you had a similar experience with Dr. M. However, I’m not surprised. He’s amazing. Coming up on a year myself and just recently got the “all clear” from my cardio - given with the annual visits and echos, of course. Best of luck to you on your fantastic recovery!
Michael Gnatek
November 17th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Adam -
Thanks for posting the story. Dr. M is one of the best in the country…I can’t recommend him highly enough. The amount of time he spent (one-on-one) with me prior to my surgery really put me at ease and convinced me that he and his group genuinely cared about making their patients as comfortable as possible with the choices presented to them.
Your work here with your web site and very informative book were also instrumental in making what can be a very stressful time (pre- and immediately post-surgery) more comforting. Thanks again!
Michael