{"id":33845,"date":"2021-08-09T18:49:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T23:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=33845"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:56:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T03:56:27","slug":"glass-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2021\/08\/09\/glass-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks to Tom & Dr. Caffarelli, I Get a New Heart!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no doubt about it.\u00a0 What I love most about HeartValveSurgery.com is the special opportunity to meet and help patients from all over the world.<\/p>\n

For example…\u00a0 I was very fortunate to recently connect with Tom Everson from Anaheim, California.\u00a0 Tom was diagnosed with aortic stenosis<\/a> and an aortic aneurysm<\/a>. During our exchange, Tom asked several great questions about surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR), transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), aortic root replacement, cardiac surgeons and hospitals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tom
\n 
\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom, 79, is originally from Staten Island, New York, and a former captain in the U.S. Air Force. Tom spent 41 years working at ConAgra Foods prior to his retirement.\u00a0 For the past 46 years, Tom has been married to Barb, his wife. Go Tom and Barb!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom Selects Dr. Caffarelli to Perform Heart Valve & Aneurysm Surgery<\/h2>\n

After we connected, Tom wasted no time becoming his own, best patient advocate. Tom researched his treatment options and then selected Dr. Anthony Caffarelli<\/a> to perform a SAVR and aortic root reconstruction\u00a0in Newport Beach, California.\u00a0 So you know, Dr. Caffarelli is a heart valve specialist having completed over 1,500 heart valve repair and replacement procedures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Dr.Dr. Anthony Caffarelli<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The great news is that Tom\u2019s surgery was a complete success. As Tom wrote to me, \u201cDr. Caffarelli\u00a0 did a great job. I had no complications and no pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is Tom showing his healing scar just two weeks after surgery!
\n\"Heart<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Specific to Dr. Caffarelli, Tom shared with me, \u201cAt my consult with Doctor Caffarelli, Barb (my wife) and I were impressed. He ‘checked off\u2019 all of the traits that I was looking for in a heart surgeon – reputation, skill, knowledge, heavy work-load, personality, trained and courteous staff.\u00a0 I was surprised that during our talk, I actually started to feel confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom Sends Me A New Heart?<\/h2>\n

After finishing cardiac rehabilitation classes, Tom’s recovery was complete.\u00a0 Woo-Whoo!!!<\/p>\n

Needless to say, that is the best part of this story. Tom is back enjoying life with his three grandchildren – Patrick, Brooklyn and Connor. Plus, Tom and Barb are off on new adventures together.<\/p>\n

However, Tom’s patient success story took an unexpected turn when I checked my mailbox. There, I saw a heavy package addressed from Tom Everson.<\/p>\n

When I opened the box, I was overwhelmed with a breath-taking gift that emerged from lots-and-lots of bubble wrap.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Glass<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom had sent me the most beautiful glass heart that was blown by Alyssa Getz and Tommy Cudmore.<\/p>\n

My initial thoughts were, \u201cStunning!”, “Unbelievable!”, “Holy Moly!”, “How Kind!” and “Amazing!”.<\/p>\n

I immediately sent Tom an appreciative \u201cThank You\u201d note.\u00a0 This was a totally unnecessary gesture.\u00a0 I was overwhelmed in joy and thankfulness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Glass-Heart-Valve-Gift\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you might have guessed, I cleared off the left-corner of my desk so that I can look upon Tom’s glass heart as much as possible.<\/p>\n

In fact, I’m staring at it right now. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks Tom! Thanks Dr. Caffarelli!<\/h2>\n

Many, many, many thanks to Tom Everson for providing me the special opportunity to support his journey to a healthy heart.<\/p>\n

I also need to thank Dr. Caffarelli for taking such excellent care of Tom, Barb and the entire Everson family.<\/p>\n

Keep on tickin’ Tom!
\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adams-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33845","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=33845"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43037,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33845\/revisions\/43037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}