About Dr. Michael Bowdish,
Heart Valve Surgeon

"I can truly say that Dr. Bowdish brought me back from the brink. Life is good in the Tennessee countryside about an hour south of Nashville. But in the spring of 2023, I endured an experience that nearly cost me everything. I was in LA on business back in April when I started to realize that I wasn’t feeling well. I became so sick that I was delirious and disoriented. It reached the point where my colleagues found me on a bench at LAX when I made an unsuccessful attempt to return home. I am grateful that they knew to ask the ambulance driver to take me to Cedars-Sinai. It was then that doctors realized that the culprit behind this was MRSA, a bacterial infection that can be hard to treat. To make matters worse, my MRSA had entered my bloodstream and became sepsis - a general infection throughout my entire body. The condition can be fatal if not treated properly and immediately.

We also then learned that the cause was from a mechanical heart valve implanted in Nashville fourteen years before. The valve had become infected. And with each beat of my heart, the infection was being spread throughout my entire body. This is when Dr. Bowdish became involved. Although Dr. Bowdish wanted to save my life by replacing the infected heart valve as soon as possible, a life-threatening stroke occurred because of the infection, and this got in the way of the heart surgery that I so desperately needed. For the infection had caused dangerous swollen areas on my heart valve and aorta called abscesses. An abscess is a swollen area filled with pus. Every time my heart would beat, it would throw off tiny clots of blood, pus and fat, called emboli, which then clogged my brain causing a stroke. The infection then traveled to my brain, causing abscesses to form there, as well.

My situation was dire and required the best medical team possible. The infection had to be treated in two ways and on two fronts: both with antibiotics and with surgery- and in both my brain and my heart. Miraculously, the antibiotics were successful in reducing the infection, which is never assured with an infection as dangerous as MRSA. Secondly, the stroke needed to be treated with blood thinners. But it had to be just the right amount of blood thinners, as bleeding in my brain made too much anti- coagulation equally dangerous. And third, I needed brain surgery to remove the infected tissue from my brain that was continuing to spread the infection just as the heart valve was. My first surgical salvation was a procedure called a craniotomy to open my skull so that the surgeon could remove two infected clumps of brain matter. This procedure was performed by Dr. Michael Alexander. I feel extremely blessed that this surgery was a success, as it finally cleared the way for Dr. Bowdish to perform my heart surgery.

I was treated in the intensive care unit for the infection, stroke, and brain bleeding for five weeks before Dr. Bowdish could finally perform my heart surgery. Understandably, the ongoing ordeal took a toll on my entire family. I do not think I could have made it through without the support of my loving wife, who tended to me each day, both remotely from Tennessee, and then in person when she arrived in Los Angeles. My mother and my 19-year-old son also traveled to Los Angeles to be with me. Perhaps the hardest part of all of this was my son being afraid about the possibility of losing his father. For when I was first admitted, it was a very real possibility that I might not survive that first weekend. I was so grateful that my mother was there to talk my son through it. Because it was a lot for my son to handle.

To make matters worse, during the time that I was infected, the delirium prevented me from being myself. At first, I was angry. I was angry at the delays due to the bleeding in my brain, the stroke, and the infection that were preventing me from getting the surgery with Dr. Bowdish that I so desperately needed. My condition was also compounded by kidney damage, which may have been a side-effect of the antibiotics. I lay there in the intensive care unit for five weeks wishing that I could go outside. But what got me and my family through it all was the Cedars nurses, who were so constantly good to me.

The nursing staff helped me work through my anger. I met so many wonderful nurses in the different rooms that I stayed in. I cannot remember all their names. But they all kept me hopeful that I would get better and get out of the hospital. Throughout the entire experience, Dr. Bowdish came to visit me each day to check on me. Both Dr. Bowdish and the nurses constantly assured me that I was “trending upward.” And after five weeks in intensive care, after antibiotics and brain surgery reduced the infection and blood thinners reduced the stroke, my surgery with Dr. Bowdish could finally be set for May 26.

As Dr. Bowdish was finally able to perform my heart surgery, he realized that my heart infection had spread beyond the aortic valve to the entire aortic root and the ascending aorta above my heart. This meant that a much more comprehensive heart procedure would be needed to remove the infected tissue. First, because I had a heart valve replacement in 2014, I would need a redo-sternotomy, meaning that prior scar tissue over my sternum would have to be cut through to gain access to my heart. This often adds one hour to the length of the operation. Second, to prevent the infection from recurring, Dr. Bowdish wanted to replace my mechanical aortic valve with a cow valve called a bovine valve. Further, because my heart infection had become so advanced, small, infected growths called vegetations had formed on my tricuspid valve in addition to the swollen, pus-filled abscesses that had formed on my aortic valve, root, and ascending aorta. The tricuspid vegetation had to be removed by a surgical process called debridement. And the infected aortic valve, root, and ascending aorta would need to be replaced altogether. This is a highly complex operation that not all surgeons are capable of performing. But my google search prior to surgery had told me that Dr. Bowdish is one of the top heart surgeons in the world. I knew I was in good hands. And I prayed that I was in God’s hands, as well.

Having been through heart surgery 14 years before, I knew how to be a partner in my own care, and I knew what to expect. I knew that I would wake up with tubes in my chest. Part of the initial recovery process is to reach certain benchmarks that justify the removal of the tubes. After just four days, I was ready to have the tubes removed. And that was a turning point in my recovery. Two days later, I was miraculously up and walking again.

Twelve days after the surgery, I was finally ready to be released from the hospital. My top priority was to remain hyper-vigilant to ensure that the infection had been treated and had not returned. I was released to a hotel across the street from Cedars-Sinai, where I would stay for an additional ten days before returning to Tennessee. I would spend 14 days on antibiotics after being discharged and my wife had to learn how to administer treatment through the PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) in my chest. As I recovered from the surgery, my anger also subsided, and my wife was relieved that I was able to be myself again.

During the first month following my return to Tennessee, physical therapy helped me to get my strength back. I truly enjoy therapy, as each session helps me to affirm that I'm getting back into shape. I lost 45 pounds during the ordeal. For my revenge meal, I indulged at Chick-Filet and started putting some healthy weight back on again. For I believe that revenge is a dish best-served deep fried on a bun! And I might even return to Chick-Filet and do it again! I think I’ve earned it! Thanks to Dr. Bowdish and the entire team at Cedars-Sinai, I have so much to look forward to now. Having come so close to losing everything, I live each day with newfound appreciation. My 19-year-old son is one of a kind. I pray for him as he pursues his future at a local Community College here in Tennessee and I cannot wait to see what he accomplishes with his future. I also built a new house with my mother, and I can now look forward to living in it.

Moving forward, I will have to deal with some long-term side-effects from the stroke. I have a blind spot in one eye and some weakness in my left side which may prevent me from being able to drive again. But my employer has been very understanding and supportive, and has arranged for me to do my job remotely from home. So many of us are fortunate that technology now enables us to work remotely.

Dr. Bowdish and the care team at Cedars-Sinai saved me under the most imposing of circumstances imaginable. It is impossible to measure the depth of my gratitude for my doctors and nurses, all of whom who kept encouraging me and providing the most advanced treatments available for challenges that most other hospitals likely could not have treated. They are truly miracle workers. I can only give two thumbs up for Dr. Bowdish. And I would recommend him with a hundred more thumbs if I had them!"

-- Josh Gregory, Aortic Valve, Tricuspid Valve, Valve Repair, Valve Replacement, Reoperation, Root Replacement, 05/26/2023

"My challenge began with an infection of the lining of my heart chambers and valves called “endocarditis.” The infection had ravaged my heart, causing me to need new aortic and mitral valves, as well as a patch repair of my ascending aorta, which is the large blood vessel branching off the top of the heart as it carries blood to the entire body. My pacemaker and the pouch where it had been implanted had also become contaminated by the infection. I am lucky that the infection did not kill me — which it nearly did. The bacteria causing the infection entered my heart from my bloodstream. And it may have entered my bloodstream from an infection somewhere else in my body. When I was first treated in a hospital in my home community, a pic line had carried antibiotics directly into my chest. Over five to six weeks, I lost twenty pounds. Although the infection started to recede with treatments, I still needed surgery to repair the damage to my heart. The surgery to repair all the damage was too complex to be done at the hospital in the smaller community where I live. And so, my cardiologist referred me to Cedars-Sinai and to Dr. Michael Bowdish for a higher level of care, which is common with more advanced cases like mine.

I could not have had a better referral. Dr. Bowdish has a way with patients that is very concerned, thorough, friendly, and direct. He was very honest that there is a 6-9% risk of complications and mortality for my kind of surgery. At one point, when I just ran in to Dr. Bowdish as I was walking into a building at Cedars, he took thirty minutes just to talk with me. Dr. Raymond Schaerf, who helped with my pacemaker, also had a very pleasant bedside manner. The nursing staff at Cedars was also wonderful.

After the surgery, I was surprised that I wasn’t in much pain. When I had a question about some tingling in my chest following surgery, it was investigated during a visit to the ER. It was determined that it was an issue with the new pacemaker adjusting. The tingling soon went away. An issue with post-operative edema was also addressed and resolved quickly by the clinicians at Cedars, who treated my concerns with the upmost urgency and respect.

Three months after the surgery, I feel great. I can say that I am 95% back to normal, and expect to be 100% normal, soon. I am very grateful to Dr. Bowdish and to his staff of physicians and nurses for taking on my complex case, and for making a life-threatening situation both survivable and manageable. Their friendly and supportive way coupled with world-class surgical skills enabled me to recover and get back to the life I so enjoy living."

-- John Langpap, Aortic Valve, Mitral Valve, Valve Replacement, 07/22/2022

> See 1 more patient testimonials