chd19
Member
Hello,
I wrote a couple of months ago regarding my 80year old father's 3 rd valve replacement (bovine). He had the surgery on 12/10 after the surgery being postponed a month due to a bout with strep throat. The surgery was performed by Lawrence Cohn at Brigham and Women's in Boston. It turned out the surgery was more urgent and complicated than previously thought. When he was opened up, it was discovered that his porcine valve that was put in 7 years prior was basicially 2/3rds removed from its sutures. On top of that, one of the leaflets was blown out. Dr. Cohn mentioned that he basically had never seen anyone alive with such a predicament. He was actually planning on getting a mini-stern due to his cath showing no major blockages (a testament to his taking caring of himself), but this obvlously changed when they went in.
Anyway, my dad surprised everyone (including Cohn) w/ his recovery. The morning after surgery he was sitting up in the ICU and talking; and basically 24 hours after surgery he had taken his first walk from his bed to the hallway and back. The following day he was moved to another room in the ICU where he went from receiving 1 on 1 nursing care to 1 on 2. All-in-all he was in the ICU for 48 hours. He then spent 5 additional days on the "step-down" floor where he continued to improve. The ICU staff was great, especially nurses Mary-Kate and Brock. Mary-Kate actually came down to visit him to see how he was doing and make certain he was walking. He did not need to go to a rehab faciltiy and he has had a few visits fromvisiting nurses, which will continue until he sees Cohn again next week. So all in all, he's doing great and the family had a great Christmas with him home.
The following is a list of surgeons in Boston that came recommended to me in my reseach:
Brigham& Women's: Shapiro Center is a state-of-the-art facility that opened up in 2008. Each room there is private and they allow one family member to stay overnight in the room with the pateint (includes the ICU rooms)
Lawrence Cohn - Renowned surgeon; speacializes in valve replacement surgery; performed about 10,000 OHS; he is 72 years old but maintains an active schedule (3 surgeries per week) and is on top of all the latest techniques/technologies
Aranki - I hear he currently has the most volume of all the surgeons in the practice
Chen -I heard he is very involved with his patient's care post-op
MGH:
Vlahakes - Heard great things about not only his skills, but that he has a great bedside manner as well.
Akins - Lots of experience; read he did JimMcNeil's (PBS) valve replacement and Jack Welch's (GE) by-pass
Macgallivary - Heard from some physicians that he is excellent as well
I wrote a couple of months ago regarding my 80year old father's 3 rd valve replacement (bovine). He had the surgery on 12/10 after the surgery being postponed a month due to a bout with strep throat. The surgery was performed by Lawrence Cohn at Brigham and Women's in Boston. It turned out the surgery was more urgent and complicated than previously thought. When he was opened up, it was discovered that his porcine valve that was put in 7 years prior was basicially 2/3rds removed from its sutures. On top of that, one of the leaflets was blown out. Dr. Cohn mentioned that he basically had never seen anyone alive with such a predicament. He was actually planning on getting a mini-stern due to his cath showing no major blockages (a testament to his taking caring of himself), but this obvlously changed when they went in.
Anyway, my dad surprised everyone (including Cohn) w/ his recovery. The morning after surgery he was sitting up in the ICU and talking; and basically 24 hours after surgery he had taken his first walk from his bed to the hallway and back. The following day he was moved to another room in the ICU where he went from receiving 1 on 1 nursing care to 1 on 2. All-in-all he was in the ICU for 48 hours. He then spent 5 additional days on the "step-down" floor where he continued to improve. The ICU staff was great, especially nurses Mary-Kate and Brock. Mary-Kate actually came down to visit him to see how he was doing and make certain he was walking. He did not need to go to a rehab faciltiy and he has had a few visits fromvisiting nurses, which will continue until he sees Cohn again next week. So all in all, he's doing great and the family had a great Christmas with him home.
The following is a list of surgeons in Boston that came recommended to me in my reseach:
Brigham& Women's: Shapiro Center is a state-of-the-art facility that opened up in 2008. Each room there is private and they allow one family member to stay overnight in the room with the pateint (includes the ICU rooms)
Lawrence Cohn - Renowned surgeon; speacializes in valve replacement surgery; performed about 10,000 OHS; he is 72 years old but maintains an active schedule (3 surgeries per week) and is on top of all the latest techniques/technologies
Aranki - I hear he currently has the most volume of all the surgeons in the practice
Chen -I heard he is very involved with his patient's care post-op
MGH:
Vlahakes - Heard great things about not only his skills, but that he has a great bedside manner as well.
Akins - Lots of experience; read he did JimMcNeil's (PBS) valve replacement and Jack Welch's (GE) by-pass
Macgallivary - Heard from some physicians that he is excellent as well
.
