New Technology and Rush Expertise Help Patient Avoid Second Heart Surgery
The Rush Center for Adult Structural Heart Disease is one of the nation’s leading centers for the treatment of heart valve disease, including the use of minimally invasive procedures like transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Our expertise is giving new hope to patients like Matt Lesniewski, who was referred to Rush interventional cardiologist Hussam Suradi, MD for persistent symptoms after open heart surgery.
Matt was on the job — he worked in the steel mill industry and is now retired — when he had his first heart-related episode in 1996: He started having chest pains and was rushed to the hospital. A blockage had triggered a slight heart attack, and Matt received a stent in his artery.
Fortunately for Matt, the stent worked, and for more than 20 years he felt great. Then, in 2018, he started experiencing shortness of breath, and follow-up testing revealed additional clogged arteries. Matt went in for a triple bypass at a hospital near his home in Northwest Indiana. Just eight days after successful open heart surgery, doctors also put in a pacemaker.
But Matt’s symptoms persisted. “I felt like I was getting weaker,” he recalls. “Even walking to get the mail made me short of breath.”
Matt’s cardiologist insisted that Matt be treated at Rush and referred him to Suradi. Matt was impressed with Suradi’s attentiveness and expertise. “From day one, I said ‘I’m yours’,” says Matt about first meeting Suradi. “I felt that at ease and that confident with him and his recommendations.”
Suradi started with a thorough evaluation of Matt’s health to provide an accurate diagnosis. Like all patients at the Rush Center for Adult Structural Heart Disease, Matt was assigned a team of providers to care for him. This multidisciplinary group met weekly to discuss his diagnosis, recommend treatment and monitor follow-up care.
Led by Suradi, Matt’s team identified aortic stenosis, a valve disease, as the cause of Matt’s continued heart concerns. Aortic stenosis can be life threatening as the aortic valve becomes narrowed over time, reducing blood flow from the heart into the aorta.
Conventional treatment for aortic stenosis is open heart surgery, but a newer solution offered promise for Matt. TAVR is a minimally invasive procedure that replaces the diseased valve by threading a collapsible replacement valve up to the heart using a catheter. Rush was one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to offer TAVR.
“The data shows that the more TAVRs a center performs, the better the outcomes for patients,” Suradi says. “We have a very established team that brings together a collective expertise to best care for our patients.”
Since the TAVR, “It’s been like night and day,” Matt says. “I noticed a difference immediately. I had no chest pain or shortness of breath. My heart murmur was gone. It was like they had unclogged a drain and my blood was pumping again.”
His care before and after the procedure proved easy too. Suradi has an office in Dyer to improve access to Rush cardiovascular services in Northwest Indiana. Matt had the choice of booking appointments in either Dyer or Chicago, receiving the same level of care no matter the location. “I have a significant patient population in Indiana, and I saw a need to have an office closer to them,” says Suradi. “Part of treating my patients is making it easier for them to receive care.”
As for Matt, he’s feeling healthy and strong — and hopes to stay that way. “I’ve got to be one of the luckiest men in the world. I have my A team of heart doctors and nurses. But fingers crossed I won’t have to worry about my heart for a while.”
Hussam Suradi, MD, sees patients in Chicago and Dyer, Ind. Please call (888) 352-RUSH (7874) or visit rush.edu/appointments to schedule an initial consultation or second opinion.