New procedure helps Ford defy odds

Manila resident Odelene Ford, 90, recently benefited from a new medical procedure that her family thinks more people should know about.

Ford was suffering from calcification in her heart and arteries and was in dire need of an aortic valve replacement, but due to her age she had been deemed inoperable.

A normal valve replacement requires an open heart procedure, and patients of an advanced age or with other health risks are often seen by doctors as incapable of handling the physical stress of such an operation.

According to her daughter, Linda Hensley, Ford was on oxygen and was so weak that she was unable to walk across a room without collapsing into a chair, and her family had seen doctors who told them there was nothing else to be done. She had been in need of a valve replacement for 10 years, and her doctors now gave her six months to live -- until a relative heard about a new breakthrough procedure that was being done at a St. Louis hospital.

The transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure is offered at Baptist Medical Center in St. Louis, one of the very few hospitals in the country to do so, since the procedure was only approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April of this year. Instead of requiring the patient to endure open heart surgery, TAVR uses a small incision in the leg to put the replacement valve in place through the femoral artery.

On Aug. 11, Ford became only the 15th person to receive TAVR at Baptist Medical, and is already back at home with no restrictions, and Hensley said that she's feeling better than she has in years.

"We just really think that more people should be aware that this procedure exists," said Hensley, "because it could change lives -- there are a lot of people out there who are in need of this operation and can't have it the traditional way. The cardiologists we saw in Jonesboro didn't even know that this existed, and we just want to spread the knowledge about it, because it could help a lot of people like it helped my mother."

TAVR was also recently approved by Medicare and is for patients who suffer from severe aortic stenosis, a narrowing of the aortic valve opening which restricts normal blood flow. Without treatment, aortic stenosis can be fatal. There are some restrictions which apply to eligibility for TAVR, as well as some risks associated with the procedure.

For more information on TAVR, contact Edwards Lifesciences at 1-800-424-3278, or visit www.yourheartvalve.com or www.edwards.com.

sharris@blythevillecourier.com