My mom had Rheumatic fever as a kid in the 50's. She had severe damage to her mitral valve. In about '71 she had an experimental valve put in by Dr. Albert Starr. He was the inventor of a ball/cage valve that bore his name. The experimental part of the valve was that the ball was coated in Teflon and the cage with a poly polypropylene material. His hope was that the polypropylene was act as a bed for tissue to grow. That along with the Teflon would reduce the need for Cumadin.
Didn't turn out that way and she was on thinners the rest of her life. But she tolerated them quite well until the end.
She also had a noticeable 'tick-tick' that you could hear in a quiet setting. When she was asked by those who heard it for the first time if the noise bothered her she would respond, "No. Not hearing it would bother me."
Anyway fast forward to about 15 years ago. She woke up to not being able to catch her breath. The found out that her aortic valve was failing. The life flighted her from Arizona back to St. Vincent on Oregon. Her cardiologist and surgeon decided to replace both the aortic and mitral valve with a new St. Jude valve and is kind of like a two piece flapper.
Apparently she was the last person alive with the experimental valve. Turns out the polypropylene lost its adhesion to the cage and would slough off ending in thrombosis, clots in the lung, or stokes. Most people either had them replaced or had died from the clots.
I'd spoke with the surgeon before the surgery. He was your archetypal surgeon. Very self confident. He explained that after 30 plus years all the poly was probably gone and likely in her legs and she was lucky it hadn't caused any problems. He was confident that this would be a piece of cake.
After the surgery he came out and was obviously shook-up. You could see it in his face as he walked up.
After they cracked her chest they were able to get a sonogram right on the valve. Turned out the poly was still there and a long string of it (about 6 inches) was fluttering in the artery with each heartbeat.
Anyway the surgery was successful and she lived many more years.
Last March she was having problems with fibrillation and efficiency (40%). This was lingering effects from the Rheumatic fever. This also caused her to start having problems keeping her protine (Cumadin) level correct. The levels were sky high the day she went into the hospital. That night she got up to pee and passed out in the bathroom, hitting her head. She ended up with bleeding around her skull, but not in the brain. Still it was bad enough that she passed a few days later at 82.
Anyway, not trying to hijack or scare, Ted. Just felt the need to tell her story and to let you know that you will live a long life with that valve. She was told that she was not to expect to live much past her thirties.
She had them for 50+ years.
