John Warns You About Tissue Valve Complications
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: May 19, 2025
I received a very interesting note from John Bryan, a heart valve patient. I share John’s story not to scare you but rather to educate you specific to the realities of valvular defects, heart valve replacement durability, and cardiac monitoring.
After Heart Valve Surgery, John Was Good
Here is what John wrote to me:
Adam, I’m not sure how to share this.
There are complications that can arise from a bioprosthetic aortic valve wearing out. So you know, I never heard about this.
My congenitally deformed aortic valve was replaced with a tissue valve in 2007. I had no restrictions and no meds. I was very active after surgery. I played basketball, rode a bike 100 miles a week, did week long bike tours, and had no issues.
Every year I followed up with a very well credentialed cardiologist. All was good.
Complications Occur
Two years ago, however, I had a breathing issue riding up a steep mountain road. I chalked it off to being tired, having a cold, whatever. A couple of months later, I had a high blood pressure episode and an unusually height heart rate. I was at a vacation home in the North Carolina mountains. A local cardiologist suspected the valve.
Meanwhile, my platelets numbers, liver numbers and kidney numbers on blood work were not so good.
I tried to follow up with the cardiologist I had been seeing for years. He sent me to a pulmonologist, then a hematologist/oncologist, and then liver doctors. After months of negative test results, I went back to the local cardiologist and got a referral to a cardiac structural specialists group.
TAVR Valve-in-Valve Resets John’s Blood
Eventually, after more months of testing, I had a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure in North Carolina. Just one week later, all my blood work was normal.
My understanding is that my aortic valve was failing for about 4 years and my heart was over-compensating. It caused the right side heart pressure to be elevated which in turn cause cardiac cirrhosis, congested kidneys, and probably permanent heart damage.
This all happened because they let the valve go too long.
John’s Cautionary Advice
The caution is for people to watch the pressures on the right side of the heart when they get annual echocardiograms. If it starts rising, which mine did in 2018, it could be an issue with the tissue valve replacement.
I’m kind of ok now. The TAVR was 3.5 months ago. They’ve got me on several different drugs including entresto, jardiance, metoprolol and furosemide. The technical diagnosis is heart failure without symptoms. I can ride my bike on mountain roads. I’m still following up to find out if the liver issue is permanent and to find out the extent of the permanent heart damage.
I don’t know if this has ever been researched or if I’m a one off, but it is an issue for valve replacement patients. So, I wanted to share it with all the heart valve patients in our community.
- Dressler’s Syndrome: What Does Steve Want You To Know?
- Dottie’s Travel Alert for TAVR Patients
- Surgeon Q&A: Heart Failure and Heart Valve Disease
Thanks for all you do to help educate patients!
John Bryan
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
