Derek's Profile

I am a 23 year old male. I had open heart surgery as a 16 year old to replace my aortic valve and fix aortic aneurysm. 2 years later as the captain of my high school basketball team I led our team to an Arizona state championship. Several news stations and newspapers picked up my story and followed me closely through this time and used my story as inspiration for other athletes. After high school I received a scholarship to play college basketball in Washington for 2 years before I transferred to the University of Hawaii at Hilo on a full ride basketball scholarship to finish my career and education. This past year I was voted team captain by my teammates and led the team in minutes with a failing aortic (Bovine) bicuspid valve. 3 weeks after the season ended I began having lots of chest pain and discovered my valve was failing and needed immediate surgery. I flew to L.A. where I underwent Open Heart at St. Johns Hospital to replace the valve I had gotten replaced almost 7 years ago. My same surgeon Dr. Sharro Raissi has now performed both surgeries on me. After my second surgery I had 3rd degree blockage and a week later they inserted a state of the art pacemaker under my muscle. I am the first person in all of L.A. to get the new pacemaker. Here I am today hoping this time around I can stay out of the operating room for many years and get back to being active and healthy once again.