After 66 years of marriage, New Hyde Park couple Joseph and Marie Nigro discovered they both had aortic stenosis – a life-threatening heart disorder that causes extreme fatigue and shortness of breath.
So on June 19, 92-year-old Joseph had a 90-minute procedure at North Shore- LIJ Medical Center in New Hyde Park that used the latest advances in heart surgery to treat an aortic valve that had stopped opening and closing properly.
The result, he said, was life-changing. “I feel great. It gave me new life,” Nigro said during a press conference at North Shore-LIJ Medical Center last Wednesday.
After witnessing her husband’s recovery, his 90-year-old wife Marie, had the same procedure on July 31 with similar results.
“I didn’t feel a thing,” she said.
The Nigros, who said they have shared the same taste in food and music, joined their doctors last Wednesday to celebrate the success of the two surgeries and the technique that made it possible.
“Ten or even five years ago, this procedure would have seemed unimaginable,” said Dr, Jacob Scheinerman, vice chair of cardiothoracic surgery at LIJ Medical Center. “It’s still amazing to me. This is why we become surgeons.”
Scheinerman said the transcatheter aortic valve replacement he performed on both the Nigros is similar to implanting cardiac stents into clogged arteries and a safer alternative for elderly patients to traditional heart surgery.
Doctors, he said, thread a catheter tube through the groin to guide a replacement heart valve into the bloodstream.
Once it reaches the heart, the valve is expanded to about the diameter of a quarter, pushing away a calcium buildup that accompanies the condition. The replacement value, which is inserted in the existing valve, creates a larger opening for blood to flow through and is then anchored in the heart.
Calcium blockages restrict blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body, increasing pressure within the heart and the risk of heart failure.
“Seeing how quickly these patients bounce back, get up and walk within 24 to 48 hours, get out of the hospital within four or five days, go home without any extensive rehabilitation” is something that amazes doctors, said Dr. Barry Kaplan, vice chair cardiology at LIJ Medical Center.
Nigro said that before the surgery he would get out of breath just tying his shoes.
“I just had to sit back in a chair and pray to God I could breathe a little more,” he said
After the surgery, he said, his nurse got tired before he did during his daily exercise regimen of walking.
The Nigros said they now feel like they will have many more years with each other.
“The way I’m getting up in the morning. I guess I’m going to be fine all the way ‘til I get to be 100,” Joseph said.
“We don’t feel old anymore,” Marie said.
During the press conference, Marie said that since their operations the couple hadn’t been going anywhere because they need to stay close to their doctors.
But her husband said that wasn’t exactly true.
“Don’t lie. You went to the casino,” he said, smiling.
