Stories

COVID-19 has placed a huge strain on the NHS and led to the delay of thousands of appointments and heart valve disease treatments. But behind every number is a story, and this is the story of Patient 359. All individual's identities have been kept anonymous.

“My valve disease story started when I was a child, and I actually found out it was leaking when I had open heart surgery in 1986. So this was actually my second open-heart surgery, as I was born with a hole between the pumping chambers which needed to be operated on. But at that time the valve itself wasn’t causing any problems - it was just something to be kept an eye on.

Birmingham MP, Steve McCabe  was diagnosed with heart valve disease twelve years ago. As with many heart valve disease patients he had not experienced any obvious symptoms.

At the very height of the COVID-19 outbreak former military man and lifelong adventurer, Jim Gibson was admitted to hospital with decompensated heart failure. Despite the pressures exerted on our NHS by COVID-19, and thanks to the work Dr Robert Smith and his team at Harefield Hospital, Jim was able to receive an innovative treatment that clips the mitral valve, and in a few short days was discharged home to be with his loving family.

It was during a company health check in 2000 that Alan discovered he had a heart murmur. After being told it wasn’t serious it was left alone until 2010 when Alan started to receive an annual ECG (Echocardiogram) to check on the progress of the disease. Due to his leaky valves, this resulted in Alan’s heart becoming enlarged which could only be resolved through surgery. In 2016 Alan underwent open heart surgery and received a mechanical valve for both his mitral and aortic valve.

Three years ago there was a black cloud over Christmas when Bridie Lilleker (33) was told that ‘under no circumstances’ could she try for a baby due to the extreme pressure it would put on her heart. Just eight weeks previously, she’d been diagnosed with severe mitral valve regurgitation, and the day before Christmas Eve she saw her surgeon. Her keyhole operation went ahead in January 2016 and this past Christmas (2018) was the best ever because they were able to celebrate it with baby Darcie!

Victor Hyman was completely unaware of his heart valve disease. Whilst on holiday in Turkey in 1994, he was visited by a local doctor for an upset stomach. While his stomach was fine, he was surprised to find out in fact he had a problem with his heart as the doctor had detected a murmur after listening to his heart with a stethoscope.

Over the next few weeks, in support of the South Tees Hospital NHS Foundation Trust UK Mini Mitral Trial, a multi-centre randomised control trial on Minimally invasive thoracoscopically-guided right minithoracotomy versus conventional sternotomy for mitral valve repair, we will be sharing a number of patients stories from patients who have been involved in the trial. The third story comes from Brian, a former soldier who was happy to be participating in the trial.