Ruth Sensinger, right, catches up with LVHN heart-and-lung surgeon Raymond Singer, MD, at the TAVR anniversary celebration this month. “To see these patients back to their normal life, dressed up in nice clothing and telling heart-warming stories of things they can do with their families, is really motivating,” Singer told The Express-Times. “It makes me realize why I picked this as a career.”
Last year, 75-year-old Ruth Sensinger of South Whitehall Township had trouble finishing a sentence without losing her breath. Today, she talks happily about how much better she feels thanks to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).
Sensinger is one of the patients who earlier this month celebrated the first anniversary of the first TAVR surgery performed at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). She shared her story about her successful surgery for this report in The Express-Times and lehighvalleylive.com.
She was ineligible for open-heart surgery to treat her aortic stenosis, but after the TAVR team performed the newly available heart-valve surgery through a catheter, she says her life is improved 100 percent.
At the TAVR anniversary celebration, 81-year-old Ivan Dassylva described his experience as “a miracle.”
