After consulting with a regional specialist, Betty Ward-Cooper (74) was disappointed to hear she should expect open-heart surgery for her symptomatic mitral valve regurgitation. She began researching the latest techniques in mitral valve repair and consulted the Smidt Heart Institute’s surgeons for their expertise in minimally invasive solutions.
I consider myself a very active person as a uh grandmother, as a mom, as a, a woman of faith. Uh serving as a Sunday school teacher and serving in other women's ministries in the church. I started noticing that I was getting short of breath, but then I got to thinking there are probably some advancements and then I started my research, I found Dr Joanna Chick and what a blessing that was highly skilled, very attentive to our patients, really caring about the quality of life. Uh after surgery of our patients, she has a heart valve that really needed a repair and she'd been told that her only option was a replacement, an artificial valve. Um And the only way to do it was really through the front of her chest, classic open heart surgery and she was looking for something better. So in Betty, we did my favorite operation which is a robotic mitral valve repair, um which allows her to keep her own heart valve that should last her far longer than an artificial valve. Um It should actually give her a better life expectancy and a longer life and a better quality of life. Than an artificial valve. And we do that using a robot which allows us to perform the surgery through a really small incision. I have had a wonderful recovery in. Looking back on my journey, I witnessed this magnificent orchestration of people that held me up until I got through this feeling good each day. A lot of energy, I'm even surprised at myself the things I get done. So the sky's the limit.
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