JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Baptist Medical Center has become one of the selected sites chosen in the country to begin performing a revolutionary new heart procedure. It's an aortic valve replacement that's minimally invasive.
88 year old Bill Toole doesn't just have one cardiologist. He has a team of them from the Jackson Heart Clinic. Toole actually volunteered to be the first to get the newly FDA approved Sapien Heart Valve.
"I think positive. I knew this was going to be a good operation and it has been and it's going to continue to be one," he said.
Toole had aortic stenosis, but his health wasn't good enough for surgery. If it hadn't been for the Sapien valve, he would have had no options. "Normally we replace aortic valves by opening the chest and going on the heart/lung machine. This allows us to do the procedure through a small incision in the groin and with no heart lung machine," Cardiologist Dr. Stewart Horsley said.
In the operating room, cardiologists and surgeons work carefully to restore the blood flow to Toole's heart and the rest of his body. Dr. William Harris explains how the procedure works. "The device is mounted in a steel frame. So once the device was put in through the aortic valve, a balloon was blown up, expanded the valve into the aorta and literally within three minutes he had a normally functioning aortic valve."
"When we finished the procedure yesterday, there was no obstruction of blood flow at all. I guarantee you are going to feel better," Cardiologist Dr. William Crowder told Toole.
"There's no question, his mortality at one year would be 50 percent. Now with a new valve, it's improved that significantly," said Cardiologist Dr. Chris Waterer.
Toole's doctors think he's brave. This man who sneaked into the military at age 16 to fight in World War II, dismisses the thought. "I wouldn't say that. We had a lot of brave men I didn't come home with."
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
