{"id":18346,"date":"2014-05-14T19:26:34","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T00:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=18346"},"modified":"2019-02-26T19:27:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T00:27:10","slug":"richard-shemin-md-patient-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2014\/05\/14\/richard-shemin-md-patient-story\/","title":{"rendered":"After 7 Heart Surgeries, Liver Failure & Kidney Failure, Irvin Is Beyond Thankful For Dr. Shemin"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you didn’t know, I moderate all of the patient recommendations<\/a> we receive at our Surgeon Finder. Earlier today, I saw a testimonial from Irvin that made me think, “That’s incredible! I gotta share this with our community!”<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, here is what Irvin posted: Luckily, Dr. Richard Shemin<\/a> took on my case which was a #9 in difficulty (10 being the most difficult!). He performed my 5th open-heart surgery while I was in kidney and liver failure from my heart valves being in shambles and not getting blood to my organs. I had 7 previous heart surgeries. Four were aortic valve replacements<\/a> and 3 where pacemaker surgeries all from the time I was age 21 due to a congenital defect in my aortic valve.<\/p>\n

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\"Dr.<\/a>Dr. Richard Shemin with Irvin Solt<\/p>\n

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After one of my last surgeries in 2003, I finally went through a 10 year period of fairly good health. I was even able to lift weights, and worked up to bench pressing up to 250 lbs. Then, in February of 2013, at the age of 59, I wasn\u2019t feeling well. But, I didn\u2019t know why. I eventually saw a kidney specialist who told me that I was in 4th stage kidney failure. My wife and I were shocked!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A few months later — in May of 2013 — I was back in the hospital where I was diagnosed with liver failure in addition to kidney failure. I felt like the \u2018walking dead\u2019. I was fortunately sent by my hospital doctor to Dr. Shemin at UCLA Medical Center for a further evaluation for heart surgery. He evaluated my ECHO and then ordered further diagnostic tests which verified my need for valve replacement.<\/p>\n

When he performed my 5th open-heart surgery on August 1, 2013, he did not expect to do as much as he did! I ended up needing a bypass, a new pacemaker, the tightening of my tricuspid heart valve required a ring<\/a>, and a complete replacement of my mitral valve with a new mechanical valve. He also put in a new aortic mechanical valve replacing the old valve that — to his amazement — was only being held on by 3 remaining stitches out of 20! Had one more stitch come loose, I would have died instantly. I knew I was sent to him for this surgery just in time!<\/p>\n

Since the surgery on August 1st, my kidney function has gone from 15% to 60% and my liver function has returned to normal! I am back to work at my job full time and working out at the gym again. Now that the \u2018pump\u2019 is working again and getting blood to my organs, I feel like a brand new man!<\/p>\n

I am greatly indebted to Dr. Richard Shemin<\/a> and his wonderful staff and to God who was overseeing this surgery as well as the other 8 before it! Dr. Shemin is not only a great heart surgeon, but also a kind and caring doctor who treats you like his own family!<\/p>\n

Irvin Solt
\nHeart Valve Surgery Patient<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-stories"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}