Deborah’s “Night & Day” Difference With Dr. Alfredo Trento
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: September 9, 2024
Hearing from heart valve patients about their success stories continues to be one of my favorite parts of running HeartValveSurgery.com. This time, it was Deborah Ogilvie that brought an ear-to-ear smile to my face. As you can read below, Deborah just had an aortic valve reoperation performed by Dr. Alfredo Trento at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Deborah Says…
Hi Adam!
Once again, I thank you so much for your work on behalf of all us heart valve patients. It is a true blessing. Due to your website, I found Dr. Alfredo Trento and had my second aortic valve replacement on August 1st at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. The first valve I received in March, 2014, had unfortunately deteriorated and I was very apprehensive in having a second aortic valve replacement. Dr. Trento assured me that all would go well (it did) and I was released on August 7th.
The difference between the two procedures was night and day… Yes, that dramatic!
I was in a lot of pain when I was released to go home after the first surgery and I continued to be uncomfortable during the recovery. Then, my incision became infected and I needed a wound-vac for 6 weeks. I went into a terrible bout of depression and it took me over a year to begin to come out of it. Thank goodness I finally found a good psychiatrist and some meds that worked and slowly came back to life. It was an awful experience all around plus my scar healed into an ugly scar as a result of the infection.
Fast forward to today when I met with Marion McRae who is Dr. Trento’s nurse practitioner. I had a chest x-ray, echocardiogram and EKG prior to seeing her. Marion reviewed the tests with me. She was very pleased to see how well my incision had healed and she was very happy with the test results, pronouncing that I could now see my regular cardiologist and no longer had to drive to Los Angeles for future appointments.
Long story short, I was completely surprised and grateful for Dr. Trento’s expertise, plus he said I did a “good job”!
Please let your readers know how very much I recommend Dr. Trento and the really great experience I had!!!
One more thing… I expressed to Marian how concerned I was that I would go into another depression after my second aortic valve surgery. Marian told me that she would see what she could do. True to her word, I only had one day where I could not take my medication. I am so grateful.
Hope this is helpful to your readers! Thanks a million to you, Adam!
Regards,
Deborah E Ogilvie
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
