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If you didn’t know… Today is National Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day!<\/p>\n
This is a special day to raise awareness to the very under-diagnosed, the very under-treated, and the very deadly form of heart disease!<\/p>\n
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In medical circles, heart valve disease is often referred to as “insidious” and the “silent killer”.\u00a0 \u00a0For me, those descriptors alone are a call-to-action for more awareness to this debilitating disease that can cause symptoms (shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, palpitations, leg swelling), heart failure and death.<\/p>\n
Consider these facts about heart valve disease:<\/p>\n
Uggh!<\/p>\n
Double Uggh!<\/p>\n
Triple Uggh!<\/p>\n
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There’s not just “good news” about valvular heart disease. Nope. There’s “great news” about heart valve disorders including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation.<\/p>\n
As I personally know (considering that I had open-heart surgery due to severe aortic stenosis), the “great news” about heart valve disease is that it can be successfully treated in patients of all ages.<\/p>\n
Here are several patients from the HeartValveSurgery.com community that had a successful heart valve repair and\/or a heart valve replacement operation.<\/p>\n
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There’s no doubt that this Heart Valve Day is different.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 has disrupted so much of our lives including the management and care of heart valve disease.<\/p>\n
Given the concerns of a potential COVID-19 infection, many patients are delaying regular checkups and procedures.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this has led to unwanted heart health emergencies including heart attacks and strokes. (Read “Managing Heart Valve Disease Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic”<\/a>.)<\/p>\n It should be known, however, that many patients are getting excellent care during the pandemic.\u00a0 For example, Donna Hartley has struggled with health challenges her entire life – malnourishment, heart disease, a plane crash, cancer and then… more heart disease. In this video, Donna shares her extraordinary journey to a healthy heart that included surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) and a Medtronic transcatheter aortic valve re-replacement (TAVR)<\/a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n