At the age of 13, I suffered an infection of the heart - endocarditis. After a 3 month hospital stay I was discharged with a mitral incompetence.
At the age ...Read more
At the age of 13, I suffered an infection of the heart - endocarditis. After a 3 month hospital stay I was discharged with a mitral incompetence.
At the age of 43 my Aortic valve began to fail and was replaced with a St.Judes mechanical valve.
Now 21 years later my Mitral valve was failing and has just been replaced with another St.Judes mechanical valve. The Aortic valve is still working well.
I am at present recovering from 2 open heart operations within 4 months.
In December 2011 my Mitral valve was replaced by way of a right thoracotomy.
Following the op I was told there were leaks through the sewing ring of the valve that was causing haemolysis and I was suffering severe loss of breath. It was thought that the leaks may seal without intervention but my condition started to get worse.
As my condition continued to decline it was decided to operate a second time.
April 2012 and I was back to theatre for the second op, this time back through the sternum again.
The new valve was found to be seperating from the heart tissue and was replaced with a larger valve giving more sewing margin. The Tricuspid valve was repaired at this time also.
Now 6 weeks on with the new valve working well I am making a good recovery.
I am now working on regaing the 11 kilo\'s in weight I lost over the last 6 months.