North Texas (1080 KRLD) - Every time a heart patient goes through an invasive surgery there is more risk to the patient. 13-year old Adam Roberts, who lives in Haltom City has been through open-heart surgery before. His first was at just a few weeks old.
But late last month, Roberts became the first patient at Medical City Children’s Hospital and in North Texas to benefit from a newly FDA-approved heart device that takes the open-part out of certain open-heart surgeries.
This time, heart surgeons at Medical City Children’s Hospital were able to use a new, next-generation valve technology that enables patients who otherwise would not be candidates to benefit from a minimally invasive approach.
"Instead of opening up the chest, and going on a heart-lung bypass, we're able to thread a catheter up through the vein up into the heart," says Vivian Dimas, MD, a leading pediatric interventional cardiologist at Medical City Children’s Hospital, who is part of an all-female surgical team. "We're able to place a valve there where they didn't have a functioning valve before."
It can take weeks for patients to recover from open-heart surgery. But, Adam Roberts went home less than 24-hours after his procedure.
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