New Device, Hybrid Team Restore Ailing Heart Valves Once Inoperable

09.01.2012

With his wife, Shon, at his side, and a new valve aiding his heart's pumping action, "I'm happy again. My family's happy again," Verwer said.

He was doing nothing but sitting and sleeping. There was really something wrong.

-Shon Verwer, wife of Gary Verwer, Stanford Hospital & Clinics patient

"I feel alive again," Verwer said. "I feel I can do anything I want, and I’ve got my positive outlook on life again. I’ll be dancing with my granddaughter at her wedding and I’ll be playing golf again."

We both walked out of there very confident that they could do what they said they could do and do it without a hiccup.

-Gary Verwer, Stanford Hospital & Clinics patient

After the valve replacement, it's like night and day. It's an incredible technique that offers so much for patients who really had no other treatment option.

-Michael Fischbein, MD, cardiac surgeon, Stanford Hospital & Clinics

Verwer represents a growing population of patients whose age has brought serious health challenges. Aortic stenosis, the most common type of valvular disease, develops most often after age 60.

Close