In my opinion, this is quite inspiring and extraordinary…

I just spent some time at HeartValveJournals.com — our social network created for heart valve surgery patients and their caregivers. While there, I clicked on Judy Fridono’s journal to see how she was doing after her mitral valve replacement and quadruple bypass operation.

Judy Fridono – Mitral Valve Replacement & Quadruple Bypass Patinet

I was happy to see that Judy is continuing to recover after her surgery. At 12 weeks post-op, Judy writes, “I guess I’m feeling pretty good. I’d say I’m 90% back to normal. Unfortunately, I don’t have more energy than I did pre-surgery.”

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At the recent AATS meeting in Philadelphia, I was very fortunate to meet with Dr. Craig Smith, the chairman of surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center.

Considering that Dr. Smith is a principal investigator on the PARTNER clinical trial – which is evaluating transcatheter aortic valve replacements – it was very helpful to get his opinions specific to Leslie’s question about technology.

Thanks to Leslie for her question. And, a special thanks to Dr. Smith for sharing his thoughts, clinical experience and research specific to the future of aortic valve replacement using percutaneous technology.

• To learn more about Dr. Craig Smith, please click here.

For those members of our community who are hearing impaired, I have provided a written transcript of Dr. Smith’s video interview below.

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