Brooklyn Wexell, a 23-year-old teacher from Cambridge, Illinois, didn’t want to have surgery. But when Evgeny Arshava, MD, FACS, a cardiothoracic surgeon at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, told her he could perform the potentially life-changing surgery through very small incisions in her chest using a robot – which would minimize both pain levels and scarring – she changed her mind.
A University of Iowa Health Care team has successfully completed a first-ever heart valve procedure in Iowa: a minimally invasive tricuspid valve repair that involves a catheter instead of open-heart surgery. UI Heart and Vascular Center specialists performed the operation Oct. 18. The patient was discharged from the hospital on Oct. 23.
For Tim McClimon of DeWitt, having the option of less pain and faster recovery was “a no-brainer.” “My recovery was faster, and I haven’t really needed much pain medication. My surgery was on a Monday, and by Wednesday afternoon I was able to stop taking the pain medications.”
When doctors and surgeons in the Heart and Vascular Center at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics learned there was a new way to perform an aortic valve replacement that resulted in less pain and shorter recovery times for patients, they knew it was something they wanted to investigate further and bring to their patients.
University of Iowa Heart and Vascular Center has earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™ for its ventricular assist device destination therapy program.
Using a recently approved update to a device called a MitraClip, surgeons at University of Iowa Heart and Vascular Center repaired the heart of an 82 year old who was a poor candidate for traditional repair of a leaky mitral valve.
Using a recently approved update to a device called a MitraClip, surgeons at University of Iowa Heart and Vascular Center repaired the heart of an 82 year old who was a poor candidate for traditional repair of a leaky mitral valve.
On Aug. 30, 2017, life changed for Ryan Manahl and his family (Cedar Falls, IA) when his 3-year-old son, Tate, was accidentally run over with a lawn mower. “I tried to keep him calm but I kept thinking the worst – ‘Is this really it? Is my son going to die in my arms right now and he hasn’t even started to live his life?’”
“I told Dr. Willey I had a goal to get back to dance, do track, and play softball. He was great to me. He told me if I followed his orders, I would get back and do those.”
