Johnny Ward

Good morning. I’m Johnny Ward. I have had the TAVR procedure done. My story starts back many years ago. Cause I was in the gym one day and fainted on the...doing one of the exercises there working pretty hard and I passed out. So I went to a heart doctor in Little Rock and found out that I had A-Fib and so he started treating me for that. Rocked on for a good number of years and we decided to move to Florida, which we did, here Fort Walton. I really don’t even know how I found Dr. Al-Dehneh. I don’t remember. And I called and got an appointment with him. And went in to see him and, and really like Dr. Al-Dehneh. He examined me and sometime, not too far in a few, after that, he did a heart cath and there’s my aortic valve was leaking and not functioning right. And, uh but he said it was not bad enough at that particular time to do anything about it. So we just kept an eye on it. He kept treating me for the A-Fib, did an ECHO here and there. And across about five years, had another ECHO done. And it turned out to be that my aortic valve was severe. So he did another cath and found out that it was severe and that something was gonna have to be done right away. So he introduced me to Dr. Patel and I never met him, but I’ll tell you, he’s a great guy, sense of humor. We went into his office and he talked to me and told me exactly what we would have to do. And I’m somewhat of a nut anyway, so I asked him, I said, “Well, you went to a class or two to learn how to do this right?” He shook his head no. He said, “I watched it on YouTube.” So I gave him the thumbs up. That’s good enough. And, so we progressed from there, met Gabby. Gabby is just a wonderful person. And they took me from there and got me ready and did all the things necessary to come to time for the surgery, which was Oct. 29. Took me in that morning. When I woke up and I was in intensive care and doing well. I wasn’t hurting anywhere. I felt decent, a little goofy headed, but I felt pretty good. And those folks in there were just wonderful. The astounding thing to me is, when you have the aortic valve replaced in your heart, you can get it done and go home the next day. I was just amazed at that. I spent one night in ICU and all the other people too, that I came in contact in that ICU unit. They were just great, very courteous, very helpful. It was just a good experience, as far as being taken care of. And so the next morning, I woke up, felt good and it wasn’t very long after that, that I was able to get to the point where I could go home. And I went home and here I am and I’m doing great. I feel good. I’m getting my strength back, but I'm getting better. I’m walking some. As far as the hospital experience, I think that’s about as good as you could get. And I’m just so thankful for that procedure, that Dr. Patel was able to do on me without opening my chest up. And I’d still be probably in the hospital this morning. So, and he did just a great job. He and Dr. Al-Dehneh, they were there, Dr. Sandwith was in there in case of an emergency. I’m sold on them. They did a good job and I appreciate it very much.

Discover how amazing the new TAVR procedure is for our structural heart program.