{"id":5926,"date":"2011-05-14T16:27:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-14T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=5926"},"modified":"2025-06-11T15:31:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T20:31:50","slug":"fear-anxiety-marc-gillinov-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2011\/05\/14\/fear-anxiety-marc-gillinov-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;How To Manage The Fear &#038; Anxiety Before Heart Valve Surgery?&#8221; Asks Sophia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sophia sent me a very appropriate question about two emotions experienced by most patients prior to heart valve surgery. She writes, &#8220;Adam &#8211; I\u2019m 62 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/mitral-valve-regurgitation-symptoms-leaking.php\">diagnosed with mitral regurgitation<\/a>. I need surgery and I&#8217;m scared out of my mind. Is there anything the surgeons can share that could ease my fear and anxiety?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/patient-fear.jpg\" alt=\"Concerns About Heart Surgery\" width=\"440\" height=\"320\" \/><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, I was able to ask this exact question to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gillinov-Cleveland-Ohio.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. Marc Gillinov<\/a>, the Chairman of Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. So you know, Dr. Gillinov has performed over 5,000 heart valve repair and replacement procedures during his career. In our community, Dr. Gillinov has successfully treated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2023\/06\/04\/dr-marc-gillinov-100-patient-reviews\/\">over 100 patients<\/a> including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/03\/23\/who-was-robin-williams-heart-surgeon-asks-tammy\/\">Robin Williams<\/a>, the Oscar-winning comedian.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DRt6mCFj74M?rel=0?si=XFSdj1LcgwUJN4Ia\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m hopeful this video interview helped Sophia (and perhaps you) understand the realities of heart valve surgery. As Dr. Gillinov suggests, the odds are very favorable that you will have a successful procedure. However, please take the time to do your homework &#8212; get a second opinion, research your surgical options, evaluate your surgeon &#8212; prior to entering the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Sophia for her question. And, a special thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Marc-Gillinov-Cleveland-Ohio.php\">Dr. Marc Gillinov<\/a> for sharing his clinical experience and advice with all of us.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/anxiety-fear-gillinov\/\">Ask Dr. Gillinov: 3 Facts To Calm Patient Fear Before Heart Surgery<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/videos\/3-questions-mitral-valve-surgery\">Dr. Gillinov&#8217;s Patient Webinar: Top 3 Questions to Ask Your Mitral Valve Surgeon<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/robotic-mitral-valve-questions\/\">Cardiac Surgery Innovation: Robotic Mitral Valve Surgery with Dr. Gillinov and Dr. Malas<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S.\u00a0For those of you who are hearing impaired, I have provided a written transcript of this video interview with Dr. Gillinov below.<\/p>\n<p>Adam: Hi, everybody. It\u2019s Adam and we are here at the Mitral Conclave very fortunate to be standing next to Dr. Marc Gillinov from the Cleveland Clinic. We\u2019re answering your questions up at HeartValveBlog.com. This question, Dr. Gillinov, comes from Sophia and she writes, \u201cAdam, I\u2019m 62 and diagnosed with severe regurgitation. I need surgery and I\u2019m scared out of my mind. Is there anything the surgeons can share to help ease my anxiety and fear?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gillinov: Absolutely. It\u2019s normal to have some fear and some apprehension. Somebody tells you, \u201cYou need heart surgery,\u201d and most people never expect to hear those words. I would recommend a few things. I\u2019ve talked to many, many people, thousands of people, with this sort of concern. First, gather information but don\u2019t dive too deeply into the internet. Go to a few reputable sites, like yours, and get information but don\u2019t over think it because the more information you get, the more contradictions you\u2019ll find, inaccurate causing more anxiety. So go to the internet and get some information. Talk to someone you know. I mean, you must know someone. You will know someone who\u2019s had heart surgery, who\u2019s had a heart issue, because they will reassure you and then when you go to meet with your surgeon, sit down with your surgeon and do listen to what your surgeon says, what he or she tells you about what operation should you have, how should we do it, but ask questions that go beyond just the technical aspects of the surgery. Ask the questions that have answers that are going to allay your concerns. For example, people almost never ask, \u201cIs this going to hurt?\u201d Or \u201cIf it is going to hurt, how can you make it so it doesn\u2019t hurt very much?\u201d People rarely ask, \u201cHow long \u2018til I feel normal?\u201d There are no concrete answers to these questions. Depending upon how your operation\u2019s done, your surgeon\u2019s going to be able to say, \u201cIt might be two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks.\u201d Your surgeon might be able to say, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a great protocol in place for managing discomfort so that we will keep it under control.\u201d And probably most important, make sure that your doctor or your surgeon are people who are willing to talk to you because you do want an excellent communicator. You want everything fixed on the inside but just like dropping your car off to get the brakes fixed where you don\u2019t really care if you talk too much to the mechanic, in this case through the whole process the patient is talking to the doctor and having all your concerns addressed. So, get the best plumber you can and make sure you\u2019re getting a good person as well.<\/p>\n<p>Adam: And one of the questions that a lot of people, one of the big fears, is that of, obviously, death and mortality. And I knew what I found comfort in was the actual statistics of success, not of failure but of success. Can you share a little bit about your statistical outcomes with patients who have come to you like Sophia who have issues with severe regurgitation and need surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gillinov: Well, Adam, you just made a really excellent point. I now always phrase the statistics in terms of success. I used to tell people \u2013 Let\u2019s say you\u2019re having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/mitral-valve-repair-surgery.php\">an isolated mitral valve repair operation<\/a> and our operating risk of the person dying is around one in a thousand and when I said to somebody, \u201cYour risk of not getting through is one in a thousand,\u201d a lot of the time they heard that wrong. They thought their chance of surviving was one in a thousand and, of course, you don\u2019t want to do anything where the chance of surviving is one in a thousand so to set the record straight, the chance of surviving an isolated mitral valve operation is 999 out of a thousand so 999 out of a thousand, we hope, will sail through getting their mitral valves fixed. 99% of them won\u2019t have a stroke or a heart attack so we\u2019re talking about people who in generality, the chance that you get through this and come out the other end in great shape.<\/p>\n<p>Adam: Great. Well, as always, Dr. Gillinov, thanks for your help and all of your incredible support. We really appreciate it. Again, this is Dr. Marc Gillinov from the Cleveland Clinic and you can learn more him at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeon-database\/home.php\">Heart Valve Surgeon Finder<\/a>. Thanks much.<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23108,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-before-surgery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926","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=5926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42150,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926\/revisions\/42150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}