Thanks to a catheterization method of valve replacement, a 15-year-old girl's life was preserved without the need for open-heart surgery.
The adolescent, who suffers from congestive heart failure, needed to have open-heart surgery every few years to replace a valve that was implanted in her body. When she came to Hadassah for her fourth open-heart surgery, Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Gavri Sagui suggested that this time, she have a newly renovated valve inserted and sutured through an innovative catheterization procedure. The treatment proved successful and now the young girl will not have to undergo any additional open-heart surgeries. She will just need to have the valve replaced again in 10 years, using the same minimally invasive procedure.
"The physical and mental traumas following each surgery were very difficult," the girl's mother said. "This time there was no trauma at all, and she even wrote a book of optimistic poems about her experience."
Dr. Sagui explains that the new procedure enables the patient to go back home within a few days. "The only thing that is left," he says, "is a small incision in the foot."