{"id":431,"date":"2008-06-15T19:57:46","date_gmt":"2008-06-16T00:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/06\/15\/beyond-the-david-procedure-for-david\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T22:30:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T03:30:05","slug":"beyond-the-david-procedure-for-david","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/06\/15\/beyond-the-david-procedure-for-david\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond The David Procedure For… David"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two heart surgeries in six days (yes, you read that right), David Barnes has quite the tale to tell. That said, I thought you might like to hear more about this inspirational and educational patient success story.<\/p>\n

Dear Adam,<\/p>\n

I had my heart surgery on March 25, 2008 at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. My surgeon, Dr. Fehrenbacher, replaced a dilated ascending aorta (5.3cm) and repaired an old descending aorta coarctation repair from 1972. I also had the David Procedure<\/a> – aortic root replacement without replacement of the aortic valve.<\/p>\n

On March 31st, just six days later, I required a second surgery (a Ross Procedure with a synergraft pulmonary valve from Cryolife), because the David Procedure failed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"David<\/div>\n
David, With Wife Annie, On Vacation In
\nNaples, Florida After Two Heart Surgeries<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although the David Procedure< failed I was well aware of the risks. There are no guarantees in any surgery and sometimes when things don't work out patients may look to assign blame. I preferred the David Procedure because I thought that it was best to keep my own parts if possible.\n\nNeedless to say, I was not a model patient. But, as they say, \"All's well that ends well!\" My only major complication<\/a> was that I had post-operative edema which looked pretty funny on me.<\/p>\n

After being in the hospital for two weeks, I am now eleven weeks post-second surgery and feeling great during the recovery. I went back to work after seven weeks – the first week back I went half-days. As for meds, I am on 100 milligrams of metoprolol and a daily baby asprin. I hope to ween off metoprolol in six months.<\/p>\n

As I previously shared, my cardiothoracic surgeon was Dr. John Fehrenbacher<\/a> who was excellent! I would recommend him to all heart surgery patients.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"John
\nDr. John Fehrenbacher – David’s Heart Surgeon<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

So you know, I used your book quite a bit. First of all, it helped me get a handle on what to expect. It really helped me deal with the initial shock and fear of surgery. Once I was over that hurdle, I used the book to help learn how to find a surgeon and what questions to ask. I am glad I found you on the internet.<\/p>\n

FYI, I was asymptomatic when they discovered the aneurysm. I like to ski and play basketball. I eat very well and exercise a lot. So other than the aneurysm, I was a really healthy guy.<\/p>\n

As for surgical options, my first choice was the David Procedure. My second choice was the Ross Procedure. My third choice was a mechanical valve. Ultimately, I knew that it would be a game time decision for Dr. Fehrenbacher – once he got in there and had a look around.<\/p>\n

I did a lot of research on my surgeon prior to scheduling the surgery. I was lucky that I knew a lot of people who where physicians or hospital administrators that I could talk to. I also knew a number of cardiovascular medical device sales reps who were very valuable in providing information. Unlike physicians, they had no problem giving me very direct assessments. I checked out the surgeons from many different sources. So, when I had to have the second surgery, I never had to worry about whether I had the right surgeon.<\/p>\n

My point is, as I am sure you know, even with the best surgeon and healthiest patient there are inherent risks and, by definition, sometimes they happen.<\/p>\n

I hope this is helpful and thanks again for writing your book!<\/p>\n

David<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patient-stories"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","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=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}