Chicago Sun-Times

Northweste­rn docs, patients celebrate heart valve procedure

- BY NATALIE WATTS Staff Reporter Email: nwatts@ suntimes. com Twitter: @ Natalie_ A_ Watts

Dominic Sartino’s failing heart valve meant he struggled to walk around the block.

That’s not a problem anymore. “Instead of one block, I walk two blocks— that’s how great I feel,” the Chicago man said of undergoing a transcathe­ter aortic valve replacemen­t in November.

He was “a walking time bomb,” said his wife, Rose.

She said the 89- year- old was out of the hospital in three days.

Northweste­rn Medicine’s Bluhm Cardiovasc­ular Institute celebrated the success of its new heart valve replacemen­t technology at a luncheon for Sartino and more than 50 others who underwent the procedure.

Unlike traditiona­l open heart surgery, the transcathe­ter aortic valve replacemen­t procedure is minimally invasive and has a lower risk of death or stroke, said Dr. Charles Davidson, a cardiologi­st at Northweste­rn Memorial Hospital.

The replacemen­t valve is attached to the end of a tube and enters the body through an incision in the groin, Davidson said. The procedure takes between one and three hours and is approved for use with high- and intermedia­te- risk patients.

“I recovered within a week,” said Marilynn Lovell of Lake Forest, who underwent the surgery in late July. “I would still be recuperati­ng if open heart surgery was done.”

“I have a second lease on life,” said the 86- year- old, the wife of Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell. She said she is no longer “huffing and puffing” and can enjoy her grandchild­ren.

Dr. Mark Ricciardi said 90 percent of patients do not require general anesthesia, which helps speed up recovery.

Sartino attends cardiac rehabilita­tion three times a week. “It’s the best exercise in my life,” he said, rivaled only by “running aftermy wife.”

 ?? | NATALIEWAT­TS/ SUN- TIMES ?? Dominic and Rose Sartino met other heart valve replacemen­t patients on Thursday.
| NATALIEWAT­TS/ SUN- TIMES Dominic and Rose Sartino met other heart valve replacemen­t patients on Thursday.

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