Judy's Profile

I was diagnosed with moderate aortic stenosis in fall 2016. This was the first I ever heard I had a heart murmur, so it was quite the shock. One year later I was told the stenosis was now severe and should be taken care of in two to three months. That was an even bigger shock. Then my cardiologist referred me to a TAVR specialist. That resulted in months of tests, appointments, constant follow up on my part, and finally a recommendation to have traditional OHS because I was too young and too low of a surgical risk for TAVR (which was obvious from the start). I moved on and made appointments with two surgeons. One made me feel comfortable, confident, and at ease. The other, after hearing my TAVR experience, surprisingly recommended that I pursue this option with their medical group. He seemed to feel they had superior knowledge and experience with TAVR, and I wanted to make sure I had done my due diligence. It was a disaster. In the end, I chose the first surgeon. He was the only one out of at least 6 surgeons or interventional cardiologists that I met who treated me like a human being rather than a clinical experiment.