Discove r Cit yV iewN C.co m's fre s h up d ate d loo k ! | 57
people like Williams and 83-year-old
Leon Bradford, that day's other TAVR
patient.
Both Williams and Bradford
suffered from aortic stenosis, a serious
disease causing the aortic heart valve to
narrow and malfunction. People with
aortic stenosis may feel faint, weak and
lethargic and may struggle for breath.
e disease can also lead to heart
failure.
But open-heart surgery, the standard
method for replacing heart valves, is
a major invasive operation, requiring
patients to stay several days in the
hospital and then weeks more of
recovery. It can be highly risky for
people who are elderly or otherwise
frail.
For them, TAVR, a minimally
invasive procedure, may be a better
option. First performed on a human in
2002 and repeatedly refined since then,
TAVR is done by snaking a collapsible
valve through a small incision and
into an artery and then up into the
heart. Once positioned exactly – a
determination made with powerful
scanning equipment – physicians
inflate the valve and anchor it into
place. When it starts working, they
remove the flexible catheter tube used
to carry the valve and they close the
incision.
e procedure lasts an hour or
two but is itself prefaced by extensive
testing and research to make sure
it would be appropriate for the
patient. Cape Fear Valley uses a
team of medical professionals and a
multidisciplinary approach to handle
TAVR patients. Tonya Carter, MSN,
NP-C, and Sommer Royal-Smith, RN,
CCCC, are the dual coordinators of
the TAVR program and help patients
Opposite: Dr. Amol Bahekar with
patient Ruby Williams
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