Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

After having a double heart valve surgery and interviewing hundreds of patients, I can not stress how important it is to feel incredibly confident in your heart surgeon. There is nothing better than knowing you found the right surgeon with the right procedure at the right time.

That said, you or your caregiver should conduct extensive research to find the right man or woman for the job. (Sadly, this advice is not always followed as 35% of patients have valve surgery without a second opinion.)

Specific to this topic… Over the past few weeks, I have traded several emails with James - a patient from Massachusetts with severe mitral regurgitation. In reading his words and seeing his actions, I know James is on the path to finding the best cardiothoracic surgeon for him.

How do I know this? Well… Take a look at the research James located about surgeons in his area. Even though the spreadsheet is tiny, I hope you can see some of the data that James is using to evaluate his potential surgeons. This table shows the surgeon name, 30-day mortality rate, case load and hospital.

After all of his research, James just informed me that he selected Dr. Alan Hilgenberg from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Interestingly enough, Dr. Hilgenberg was identified as one of the “highly recommended heart surgeons” when I conducted a survey of former heart patients for my book.

Dr. Alan Hilgenberg

James is scheduled for surgery on August 29th to fix his diseased mitral valve. I want James to know that I’m thinking great and healthy thoughts for him!

Keep on tickin James!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.

Earlier today, I was at Borders reading a fascinating book called “The Ultimate Question” by Fred Reichheld. The book claims that YOUR customer satisfaction is best measured by one simple question, “Would you recommend this product or service to a friend?”

When I stopped to think about it, I was amazed at all the different product and service recommendations I made during the last 24 hours. The list included everything from one-cup coffee machines (Keurig) to 7-inch digital photo frames (Philips) to attorneys (Valle Associates) to gardening centers (Lowes) to…. yes… you guessed it… HEART SURGEONS.

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Blog Topics: Top Heart Valve Surgeons; David Adams, M.D.; Cardiothoracic Surgeon; Mount Sinai Hospital; New York

From experience, I know there is nothing better than having 100% faith in your heart surgeon when you roll into the operating room for your heart valve replacement or heart valve repair.

For that reason, I am continuing to extend my top heart surgeon category in this blog. I am hopeful these surgeon profiles will help future patients and their caregivers find highly regarded surgeons in the heart valve community.

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Blog Topics: Top Heart Valve Surgeons; Dr. Vincent Gaudiani, MD; Redwood City; Cardiac Surgeons

Recently, I received an exciting email from Cheryl Boney, one of my readers. Cheryl recently had heart valve surgery. She wrote to me:

“Adam - I had my heart valve replaced at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City by Dr. Vincent Gaudiani on November 16, 2007. I returned home to Fresno five days later, on November 21st.”

Cheryl continues, “May I suggest that you add my surgeon and cardiac care facility to your list. If you check the credentials of each you will find they deserve being added to your “top heart surgeon” list. The quality of care was PHENOMENAL!”

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Blog Topics: Magdi Yacoub; Heart Surgeon; Cardiothoracic Surgeon; Ross Procedure Specialist

The more I learn and interact with the heart valve surgery community the more I hear about those surgeons which deserve and receive “top heart surgeon” or “best heart surgeon” labels.

That said, I have continued to hear the name of Magdi Yacoub over-and-over again. On one hand, the name Magdi Yacoub is not hard to forget. On the other hand, when you learn about all that Magdi Yacoub has accomplished it almost impossible to not mention his name along with the other heart surgeons we’ve been tracking.

Also, the fact that Magdi Yacoub is leading conferences on the perfection of the Ross Procedure, strikes my keen awareness to this surgical wizard. I say that because I had a Ross Procedure performed on myself in 2005. I’m so interested in the Ross Procedure, I was lucky enough to recently interview Dr. Donald Ross.

So, without further ado…. Here is some background information on Sir Magdi Yacoub. Yes… Magdi Yacoub has a real, official “Sir” in front of his name. I guess that puts him in another category right alongside Paul McCartney and Richard Branson.

Magdi Yacoub - Professional Accomplishments

Sir Magdi Yacoub has performed more transplants than any other surgeon in the world and, as a scientist, his interest in the basic mechanisms of heart structure and function in health and disease has improved transplant surgery and patient care. Magdi Yacoub retired from the NHS in September 2001, but continues to head his research programme at Harefield Hospital, which he sees as, “treating patients in the future.”

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Blog Topics: Heart Surgeons; Number of Cardiothoracic Surgeons; The Cardiothoracic Surgery Network; The Society Of Cardiothoracic Surgeons; Best Heart Valve Surgeons

I just received an interesting question about heart surgeons…

The question was, “How many heart surgeons are there?”

Honestly, that is the first time I ever received this question. Typically, the question I get over-and-over-and-over again is, “Who are the top heart surgeons?” and “Who are the best heart valve surgeons?”

That said, I was excited to learn more about cardiothoracic surgeons. So, I did what just about anybody would do… I started Google’ing and surfing the world wide web.

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