Ray's Profile

(copied and pasted from a post) I am a 76 year oId man from New Jersey. I was diagnosed with a heart murmur at age 15. This kept me off the football team and out of the army. Probably both good things. Later when they began to do echos, they were able to identify aortic stenosis. I have never had any symptoms i.e. shortness of breath or chest pain. Because I had a commercial pilots license (just a recreational flyer) I had to have an echo every year. Thirteen years ago I was told by a local cardio (in another city) that I needed surgery immediately. It turns out that the doctor who analyzed the echo cardiogram just did a very sloppy job of writing the report and the local cardio and surgeon just relied on his report and didn't bother to look at the media themselves. As a result, I lost my ability to fly. I called Dr. Sabik's office at Cleveland Clinic to arrange a second opinion. I never got to see Dr. Sabik because Dr. Wahl Jaber at Cleveland Clinic opined that I didn't need surgery at that time. He also went out of his way to help me get my pilot physical re-instated by the FAA. I have been going to Dr. Jaber for follow-up every year since then. Things finally progressed to the point that surgery was recommended. Aortic valve opening has reduced to .77cm. As I said above, the only symptoms is increased fatigue and slowness in recovery.