New England Hospitals and Surgeons

[TellTaleHeart]

I understand Cleveland Clinic seems to be the gold standard for valve replacement, but as I’m located in Massachusetts which has a number of well regarded hospitals, I’d love to hear from anyone who had their surgery in New England and what the experience was. I’m especially interested in surgeons that I could access for a second consult. I have an appointment scheduled already for an initial consult with a surgeon who is head of the cardiac surgery department at a prominent Boston hospital that has a specialty in AVR, who was recommended by my cardiologist.

 

[Chuck C]

I understand Cleveland Clinic seems to be the gold standard for valve replacement, but as I’m located in Massachusetts which has a number of well regarded hospitals, I’d love to hear from anyone who had their surgery in New England and what the experience was. I’m especially interested in surgeons that I could access for a second consult. I have an appointment scheduled already for an initial consult with a surgeon who is head of the cardiac surgery department at a prominent Boston hospital that has a specialty in AVR, who was recommended by my cardiologist.

I don't live in your area, so I can't recommend any local valve surgery centers to you. But, my situation was similar in that I live in an area that has many nationally ranked valve surgery clinics and I was debating whether to stay local or go to Cleveland Clinic. After all, they are #1 in the nation and for good reason.
I ultimately decided that it would be nice to stay local and felt that I could get world class care with so many top institutions in Southern CA. Things worked out great for me and it was nice to be able to see them in person for my follow up appointments. At the same time, Bizinsider lives near me and chose to go to Cleveland Clinic for his operation and I believe he was very happy with his outcome as well. You might want to reach out to him to get his thoughts on the question of staying local or travelling to Cleveland.

 

[MdaPA]

I’m especially interested in surgeons that I could access for a second consult.

Try the below site to look up a valve surgeon in your area in the U.S.

Heart Valve Surgeon Finder for Patients & Caregivers

 

[kevanndo]

I understand Cleveland Clinic seems to be the gold standard for valve replacement, but as I’m located in Massachusetts which has a number of well regarded hospitals, I’d love to hear from anyone who had their surgery in New England and what the experience was. I’m especially interested in surgeons that I could access for a second consult. I have an appointment scheduled already for an initial consult with a surgeon who is head of the cardiac surgery department at a prominent Boston hospital that has a specialty in AVR, who was recommended by my cardiologist.

If you are looking at Mass General, I would recommend Duke Cameron. He was formerly at Johns Hopkins, where he performed my daughter's mitral valve repair when she was six years old and then her mitral valve replacement surgery when she was nine. In addition to being a very fine surgeon, he always impressed me with his gentleness, kindness, and most especially, his humility. You'd be in great hands if you are considering him.

 

[cldlhd]

I understand Cleveland Clinic seems to be the gold standard for valve replacement, but as I’m located in Massachusetts which has a number of well regarded hospitals, I’d love to hear from anyone who had their surgery in New England and what the experience was. I’m especially interested in surgeons that I could access for a second consult. I have an appointment scheduled already for an initial consult with a surgeon who is head of the cardiac surgery department at a prominent Boston hospital that has a specialty in AVR, who was recommended by my cardiologist.

There are great medical facilities in the Boston area, I'm not sure if you're set on having your valve replaced or not or what it's situation is regarding calcification and/or regurgitation. But if it's a candidate for repair it's a little bit of a drive but the surgeon I ended up using, Dr Joseph Bavaria from the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is considered one of the country's best regarding bav repair and aneurysm replacement.

 

[TellTaleHeart]

If you are looking at Mass General, I would recommend Duke Cameron. He was formerly at Johns Hopkins, where he performed my daughter's mitral valve repair when she was six years old and then her mitral valve replacement surgery when she was nine. In addition to being a very fine surgeon, he always impressed me with his gentleness, kindness, and most especially, his humility. You'd be in great hands if you are considering him.

Thank you, I’ll add him to the list of surgeons to research

 

[MarkZ]

If you are looking at Mass General, I would recommend Duke Cameron. He was formerly at Johns Hopkins, where he performed my daughter's mitral valve repair when she was six years old and then her mitral valve replacement surgery when she was nine. In addition to being a very fine surgeon, he always impressed me with his gentleness, kindness, and most especially, his humility. You'd be in great hands if you are considering him.

Seconded. Not from personal experience, but because I'm a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins Medicine and I hear all the time about how much he's missed here. Everybody acknowledges it was a major loss to Johns Hopkins to lose him to MGH. I even have colleagues who send their loved ones all the way from Baltimore up to Boston just to see him.

I also echo cldhd's suggestion for Dr. Bavaria at Penn. I ended up going to Cleveland Clinic, but I met with Dr. Bavaria before that and almost went with him. He was a little more aggressive than Dr. Svensson (CC) in their approach, but his numbers (which are publicly available by the way from a PA audit in 2016) are phenomenal.

 

[TellTaleHeart]

Seconded. Not from personal experience, but because I'm a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins Medicine and I hear all the time about how much he's missed here. Everybody acknowledges it was a major loss to Johns Hopkins to lose him to MGH. I even have colleagues who send their loved ones all the way from Baltimore up to Boston just to see him.

Thanks. A friend who works at MGH also recommended Duke Cameron. On my short list for sure.

 

[cldlhd]

Seconded. Not from personal experience, but because I'm a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins Medicine and I hear all the time about how much he's missed here. Everybody acknowledges it was a major loss to Johns Hopkins to lose him to MGH. I even have colleagues who send their loved ones all the way from Baltimore up to Boston just to see him.

I also echo cldhd's suggestion for Dr. Bavaria at Penn. I ended up going to Cleveland Clinic, but I met with Dr. Bavaria before that and almost went with him. He was a little more aggressive than Dr. Svensson (CC) in their approach, but his numbers (which are publicly available by the way from a PA audit in 2016) are phenomenal.

If you don't mind is there a way I can access Dr Bavaria's Pa audit that you reference?:

 

[MarkZ]

If you don't mind is there a way I can access Dr Bavaria's Pa audit that you reference?:

It’s not just Bavaria, it’s every surgeon in the entire state!

https://www.phc4.org/reports/cabg/16/

 

[cldlhd]

It’s not just Bavaria, it’s every surgeon in the entire state!

https://www.phc4.org/reports/cabg/16/

Thank you.

 

[tom in MO]

It takes a team to do OHS like it takes a village to raise a child. Pick the hospital, then the surgeon, unless you have some type of condition that needs a specialist but your profile indicates just a simple AVR. Your success is not dependent upon one person, but the pre-op team, the operating team, the post-op team, cardio rehab and support during the first 6 months of healing. The one person who goes with you is your cardiologist. They know which surgeons are screw ups.

I picked my hospital and took the first doctor assigned to me by hospital rotation. Then I investigated the man and didn't change the hospital's selection.