CityView Magazine

58 | March /April 2019 through every step of the process, from initial visits to follow-up checkups. Bradford, a part-time hog farm worker, said he was constantly short of breath before undergoing the TAVR procedure. He was also chalk-white and lethargic. "I was working but I kind of had to take my time," he said. "It got to the point that if I was rinsing down a 100-foot hog house, I'd have to stop three or four times to rest. Or I could walk out in our back yard to the fence and back and I would just be out of breath. I didn't have enough energy to do anything." He'd known for years that he'd eventually need his heart valve to be replaced. Last fall, his doctors said it needed to happen soon. ey told him he could go to Raleigh to have it done or wait a few weeks for Cape Fear Valley's new program to open, but no longer than that. "I didn't want my wife up there in that Raleigh traffic," he said. He became Cape Fear Valley's first TAVR patient on December 19. A few hours aer the procedure, nurses got him up and walking. "I could tell the difference in my breathing right then," he said. He wasn't struggling for breath. And color was back in his face. Bradford now laughs and talks easily and takes daily walks around his neighborhood. He said he plans to quit hog farm work and pursue a new job – as a Walmart greeter. Before her valve replacement, Williams also struggled – though she'd thought her shortness of breath, weakness and occasional fainting spells were just part of aging. When her older brother died of a heart attack, she had her heart checked and was shocked to learn she also had serious cardiac problems. Above: Physicians Amol Bahekar, Ali Husain, Robert Maughan and Thor Klang stand in the new state-of-the-art hybrid operating room at Cape Fear Valley. Bahekar and Klang are interventional cardiologists; Husain and Maughn are cardiothoracic surgeons. Below: Leon "Mr. Pete" Bradford talks with Sommer Royal-Smith

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