The heart is one of the most complex organs in the body and just about every medical procedure involving heart surgery carries high risk. However, thanks to hard work from dedicated staff at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, patients across the Region suffering from aortic stenosis, which is the narrowing of the heart’s aortic valve, can undergo a high-tech minimally-invasive procedure that dramatically improves quality of life just a day after surgery. Called transcatheter aortic valve replacement or TAVR, this cutting-edge treatment provides an alternative to open heart surgery for many patients. On Tuesday, Community Hospital, Munster successfully marked completing the TAVR procedure on more than 100 patients during an Outreach and Education event at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster.
Aortic stenosis is a condition that gradually weakens those suffering from it and causes chest pain, fatigue, and shortness of breath. In more severe cases it carries a prognosis with a 3-year survival rate of less than 30%. The solution in the past was an aortic valve replacement, usually meaning risky open heart surgery for the mostly elderly patients. Not wanting to see their patients suffer from this invasive procedure, Community Healthcare System built a team dedicated to performing TAVR, a groundbreaking procedure that replaces the damaged valve with a catheter inserted through an artery in the leg. Previously only available at major academic medical centers, TAVR is now part of the comprehensive quality heart care available at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System: Community Hospital-Munster; St. Catherine Hospital-East Chicago; St. Mary Medical Center-Hobart.
“With this procedure, 70% of our patients are home the next day,” said Stephanie Bandstra, TAVR coordinator at Community Healthcare System’s Structural Heart & Valve Center. “We’re getting them back to dancing, going on vacations, some of them are even jet skiing! Even if it’s just bingo night, we’re getting them back to whatever they like to do in life.”
Until 2017, only academic medical centers offered the procedure. For the weak and often elderly patients, traveling to those institutions was simply impossible or meant long waiting lists. Now, more than 100 patients have had the procedure at Community Hospital and many gathered at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster to meet other patients and reunite with the doctors that in some cases saved their lives.
“TAVR was the closest thing to a miracle I could have asked for,” said Raymond Knight, an 82-year-old who was among the first to undertake the procedure at Community Hospital. “The day before I went in, I was in bad shape. Another week and I’d have been bedridden. They took me in, did the procedure, woke me up at 7 in the morning the next day, gave me breakfast and sent me home.”
Before TAVR, Knight could barely walk five feet without needing to rest. Less than a year later, he has been jogging, walking miles to go golfing, and even went skiing for the first time in years.
Throughout the evening, community members and Community Healthcare System staff mingled and caught up on life after the procedures. Speeches were made reflecting on the past year and what the success of the TAVR procedure means for not only Community Healthcare System, but also the community. For the doctors leading the TAVR team, seeing their patients come together and celebrate good health represented the payoff for all their hard work.
“Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see these patients laughing, chanting, and dancing,” said Hussam Suradi, MD, and co-director of the Structural Heart & Valve Center. “Without this procedure, I don’t know how many of these patients could even be here. This last year has been an incredible journey.”
To learn more about TAVR and to find out if it’s the right procedure for you, visit comhs.org.
