Steve's Posts

Hi Steve, Options are always good glad you have some im a veteran and we don't really get to choose , IM in New Jersey area my VA Hospital here did not have a thoracic Surgeon so they sent me to NY where I met Dr Grossi who was assigned to me , I discovered he has 37 years of experience was a professor of surgery @ NYU and everyone i asked said hew was the best, I have met him twich and he was very confident answered all my questions and said he was there if I had any questions so I feel lucky im sure you will find some one you can be comfortable with we all cant go to the Cleveland Hospital or to Mayo im sure there are Dr in your area who will put you at ease all the best my surgery is on Mach 11th

This is a really good question. I have a small but very reputable heart institute an hour from my home in central Illinois. I chose it because I'd read good things about them and I also had a friend who was a cardiac nurse there. It was very easy for my family and friends to give me support. I could've traveled to Chicago to a much larger facility but have no regrets staying near home.

Find the best surgeon whom you are comfortable with and have confidence in his/her ability to successfully perform your surgery. Look at how many they do annually and for how long they have been performing the surgery you need. I traveled 3 hours to have one of the finest if not the best in the nation complete my surgery. Northwestern Medicine has people fly into Chicago from all over the US to have Dr Patrick McCarthy perform their surgery. His and his colleagues reputations are remarkable. They will also schedule a pre-surgery appointment and perform the surgery a day or two later. He will allow you to fly home also.

Hi Steve, it never occurred to me to travel out of the area. Because I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I just felt that I would get high-quality care, and I lucked into selecting a fantastic surgeon who specializing in my type of surgery. It has been really interesting to see how many people do travel by reading this website. My cardiologist and I discussed it, and he said he does refer complicated cases to places like the Cleveland Clinic. Whichever way you go, choose someone who has the outcomes and the ability to instill great confidence in you.

Steve....I personally am blessed to live 30 minutes from one of the Top Heart Hospitals in the World so it was a no brainer to go to Duke. If I lived in "Dead End, USA" then YES...I would seek out the BEST Surgeons in the Country. You live in the Phoenix area so I am sure you have a lot of top notch Cardiac Heart Surgeons near you. Good Luck!

I know that there have been people on here who had their surgery in Phoenix, but off hand I can't remember who. I had mitral valve repair and was a good candidate for minimally-invasive, robotic, so traveled to Cleveland Clinic from Tucson. Fortunately, I had a cousin about an hour and a half from CC, so I stayed with her for about a week after getting out of the hospital. I met other people who traveled without that advantage. If I remember correctly, Mayo and Banner in the Phoenix area both had patients who were happy with their results.

Hi Steve! Using the guidance from this site, I used the US News & World Report Cardiac Hospital Rankings which led me to Patrick McCarty at Northwestern Medicine. I had surgery a few weeks after Louanna. This surgery is a life changer so I would recommend travelling to the best surgeon/hospital you can find which works for you and your family. I have seen Dr. McCarthy interviewed numerous times and he says that whichever surgeon you go to make sure they have performed thousands of the surgery you need. This is a very precise surgery and those that do hundreds of these surgeries each year get very good at it. Best wishes!

I live about an hour away from the Mayo Clinic in MN and had a great outcome. I think they have a campus in Phoenix area as well, Mayo is one of the best hospitals in the world, I would assume that the Phoenix campus has a similar level of excellence to the Mayo clinic in MN. Depending on your surgery, I would think you would be able to find a capable surgeon in Phoenix. I would say that by the time I left the hospital the 1 hr car ride home was no problem, could have traveled a lot farther. I could have handled a short/medium flight. I would also say that there was some comfort in knowing that my surgeon and hospital where I had the surgery was not too far away in case an issue came up a few days after being home. Just something to keep in mind. I have only been on this site now for about a year but have seen a lot of people receive successful surgeries all over the U.S. at many different hospitals. It all comes down to what you feel comfortable with.

My son's surgical report mentioned reducing his temperature during his bicuspid repair and aneurysm repair surgery. Honestly, that part freaked me out less than him being on the bypass machine though I should mention I do not know to what degree he was cooled. This will sound horrible but there came a point for us that the less we knew the better and we put our trust into our surgeon.

Are you talking about having an aortic arch replacement? They do use more aggressive cooling during an arch replacement. Cardiac surgeons use cooling in pretty much every heart case requiring bypass. I had an AVR, root, and ascending aneurysm resection, and yes, I was cooled. It protects both your heart and brain. It is really a standard part of bypass. I

Thank you for your comments. I was told my ascending aneurysm goes up far enough into the arch that at some point during surgery they will have to shut off the bypass machine in order to fix that portion of the aorta. The surgeon mentioned in order to do this, since there would be no blood flow through my body for up to 30 minutes, they cool the body off to slow down brain activity and the need for oxygenated blood.