Ralph's Guestbook

Richard Munson  You have an interesting story that i found compelling as i had a couple of cords replaced 4 years ago during my mitral valve repair. Curious if your cords that failed were natural or commercial. My ejection fraction improved but in march i go for my 4 year echo. Not sure if cord degradation even shows up. Probably not going to hear that a cord is showing signs of wear. Like a fan belt on your car. No doubt breakage would show. When you say rare to happen, i revert to the old “ nothing is 100%”. Especially in the world of manufacturing. Hopefully you can get this fixed. Assume you have gone thru the second, third opinion route. If not, do it. My best to you. You will no doubt get some excellent responses on this site. The goal is always finding a hospital and surgeon that specializes in your particular situation. Finding him or her is not always easy but worth it in the long haul. I only hooked up with adams site after my surgery but i was lucky to find good people at mass general in boston or else who knows where i would have ended up. It was in the middle of covid so my choices were limited.

Susan Lynn  Ralph - I had my mitral valve and chords repaired 7 years ago. I'm not sure if you're from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, but if you are, you might want to consider seeking another opinion at my hospital, Lankenau's Heart Pavilion in Wynnwood or one of the Philadelphia hospitals. We're big supporters of second opinions on this site. You may benefit from an objective set of eyes on your case. Good luck! Please keep us posted.

J Alexander Lassally  Hey Ralph - without knowing any specifics, I'd make sure your repair surgery was a HIGH QUALITY repair and they did what they needed to do. Slipping EF could be complex, so root out things first. 
Have an independent team evaluate your ECHOS and make sure there is not a surgical failure here. This, before going down the heart failure / transplant rabbit hole. Good luck man !  
(Note, some people do have failures in their Mitral Valve surgery - so this is critical to evaluate!) 

susan harris  if you’re interested in 2nd opinion, in philadelphia, dr joseph navarro at jefferson was highly recommended to us. surgeon at cleveland clinic gave him high praise, also. he left penn recently. also, dr Ibrahim at penn is well regarded. some say he isnt very personable but honestly, better to be technically awesome. i’ve not met him so just going on what others say. personality is second for me!  just some thoughts if it’s helpful.