William's Profile

Originally diagnosed with a faint heart murmur (due to aortic valve regurgitation), my progress was followed in Indiana for 7 years by Dr. J.D. Graham III until the rate of heart thickening made my first surgery necessary. I elected to have surgery in southern California so I could recuperate with family, and unfortunately, my surgeon elected to repair the aortic valve, something I found out later is never done. Predictably, the repair failed within 3 weeks, and 6 months later I had the same surgeon replace the valve with a St. Jude porcine valve. That valve lasted just under 5 years before it became stenotic and it too had to be replaced. My girlfriend at the time (and now my wife) convinced me to look up Dr. Marc Gerdisch, whom she had discovered while researching my condition. Conveniently, he was at a hospital 3 miles from my home, so my third surgery to install an OnX aortic valve and root was carried out by this amazing doctor. It's been 5 years since the last surgery, and the valve is still clicking away. Aside from the warfarin I'm on (due to a clotting disorder, not so much because of the valve), I have no complaints so far, and I would recommend Dr. Gerdisch to anyone in the Indianapolis area.