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Shannon's Unicuspid Heart Valve Discovery

By Adam Pick on June 9, 2009

You might remember Shannon's last email about diseased heart valves, pregnancy and child birth. Well.... Here is her post-operative update:

Hey Adam!

I wrote to you several months ago about heart valves and pregnancy. I just wanted to send you a quick update!

I had my surgery on May 14th at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Doctor Ed Chen was my surgeon. I cannot say enough about how wonderful he and the Emory staff were to work with.

Shannon - Heart Surgery Patient With Unicuspid Heart Valve

Dr. Chen replaced a section of my aorta to correct an aortic aneurysm. I have known my entire life that I have a bicuspid aortic valve, however, in surgery the surgeon discovered I actually have a unicuspid aortic valve (only one leaflet)! FYI, the docs think I should be fine to have kids before replacing the valve!

I attached a picture of my incisions exactly one week after surgery (see above). Dr. Chen was very proud of his work (as he should be) and I was the talk of Atlanta because of the size of the incision and type of surgery.

Unicuspid Aortic Valves - Calcified and Narrowed

I wanted to thank you again for your heart valve surgery book! It has made recovery for me and my support group much easier!

God Bless,
Shannon Coughlin

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Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

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