‘Easy’ heart-valve fix takes Jacksonville man from shortness of breath back to ‘normal life’ – The Florida Times-Union

Ted Jackson and his wife regularly walked at least 5 miles a day.

Then in August 2018 he foundhimself unable to walk even a short distance without having to catch his breath.

Assuming there was a problem with his respiratory system, he went to see a pulmonologistwho did a battery of testsand ultimately referred him to a cardiologist. When he was toldhe had heart-valve disease, Jackson made another assumptionthat he would needopen-heart surgery and a long recovery was in the offing.

Againhe was wrong.

Three months after that initial shortness of breath, Jackson underwent aminimally invasive procedure for heart-valve disease patients called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR. As soon as he woke up, hefelt dramaticimprovement, particularly in his hands and feet that had been swollen. He went home the next day.

More: Guest column: Dont let COVID-19 delay heart care

"I could feel my hands and feet oxygenating again. They hadn't been getting enough oxygen," he said."Iwas amazed that they had such a thing, that it works so well, so easy.

"I basicallyresumed a normal life," Jackson, now 81, said.

In 2012AscensionSt. Vincents Riversidewas the first Jacksonville-area hospital to perform the innovative procedure.By the time Jackson's case came along in 2018, the hospital hadperformed about 500 such procedures and by 2021 had reached the 1,000-case milestone.

Annuallyat least 5 million Americans are diagnosed with heart-valve disease. Unlike other forms of heart disease that can be caused byrisk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and family history, heart-valve disease is "directly related to aging," said cardiologistSamer Garas,who performed the first procedure in Jacksonville in 2012as well as Jackson's in 2018.

With age, the heart's aortic valve thickens or calcifies, preventing the valve from opening fully, which limits blood flow. Symptoms can be shortness of breath,chest pain, fainting, fatigue andleg swelling. High-risk patients have a 50 percentchance of dying within twoyears of diagnosis.

Jackson said hisvalves "weren't working at all."

In most cases, transcatheter aortic valve replacement eliminates the need for open-heart surgery. A catheter issnaked to the heart through an artery in the thigh and a covered metal valveis inserted inside the diseased valve. Only patients who are relatively young or need bypass surgery as well would be candidates for open-heart surgery, Garas said.

"It's the most amazing advance in my career," he said. "I tell them, 'I can't believe you're going home in a day.' It would be 10 days if it was surgery."

The cause of heart-valve diseaseagingcannot be treated per se. But for the senior populationmost likely to have the disease, transcatheter aortic valve replacement "is the most preferred approach" to treating the symptoms, he said.

"Older people want to live healthier," he said, citing many elders' desire to playgolf, travel and otherwise keep active.

In the procedure's early years, its usage was slow going because of a lack of awareness in the medical community. That has improved somewhat, but Garas wants to spread the word about how the procedure changespatients' lives.

"The main thing is awareness. A lot of patients, alot ofdoctorsstill…don't know they have an option," he said.

Providing such an option, he said, is "rewarding" for him and for Ascension St. Vincent's.

"We take pride in our cardiovascular program," Garas said.

Related: Ascension St. Vincent's to host clinical trial for 'revolutionary' stroke-prevention device

When he recommended thetranscatheter aortic valve replacement to Jackson, the patient was a bit reluctant. Those 500 or so successful procedures still seemed like a small number, Jackson said.

"I didn't want to be a guinea pig," he said.

After some research, he agreed. And now he is an advocate, urging patients with similar symptoms to take action.

"I've got to say, anybodythat has this condition adversely impacting their life… don't hesitate," Jackson said.

Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109, bcravey@jacksonville.com

TO LEARN MORE

For more informationgo tohealthcare.ascension.org/Specialty-Care/Cardiology/Structural-Heart-Valve-Care-Jacksonville.

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'Easy' heart-valve fix takes Jacksonville man from shortness of breath back to 'normal life' - The Florida Times-Union