Anesthetic Care of the Pregnant Patient With Cardiovascular ...

A CT Man Was Chosen To Give A Memorial Day Speech. First He Got His Heart Fixed.

Bill Rood has a heart for Memorial Day, honoring those who have given their lives to their country, as well as veterans of the armed services.

This year, he will speak at Willimantic's annual Memorial Day ceremony on his favorite topic: freedom. He'll be there because of a procedure he underwent this month at UConn John Dempsey Hospital that gave him a new aortic valve.

Rood, 83, was having a hard time last fall with a severe cough that resulted in his first hospitalization. "I was sick in November. … I had a bad cough. I just couldn't shake it," he said.

Navy veteran Bill Rood at his shop, Windham Industries Inc., in North Windham on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Bill had a transcatheter aortic valve replacement at UConn Health on May 11, and he will be giving the Memorial Day speech in Willimantic. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)

"I was going to work every day but this cough was just debilitating. I just couldn't seem to shake it. I had a dry, hacking cough all the time," he said.

Now, Rood said he has led "pretty much a normal life" since he underwent a transcatheter atrial valve replacement, or TAVR. While his groin is black and blue still, "I'm in pretty good shape," he said. "I can walk across the field itself without having to stop for breath. I couldn't make it all the way. Life is a lot better."

Rood, who lives in north Windham, founded Windham Industries, a metalwork manufacturer that makes railings, stairs and mezzanines for building contractors, in 1974. He still does estimating and other paperwork while he turns the business over to his son.

UConn Health's TAVR program recently marked its 25th procedure under Dr. Chittoor Sai Sudhakar, chief of cardiothoracic surgery, working with Dr. JuYong Lee, director of vascular medicine and endovascular medicine.

Courtesy of the Rood family

Bill Rood, who underwent a successful transcatheter aortic valve replacement, with his honeybees at his Windham home.

When Sai Sudhakar saw Rood, "we noticed that he was having severe aortic stenosis, which is the narrowing of the valve and that does not allow blood to flow through as easily to the rest of the body … and the rest of the body does not get enough blood," he said.

"So traditionally, when they're symptomatic like that, you know that survival gets decreased," he said.

The aortic valve can narrow with age, affecting more than 20% of people over 65, according to UConn Health. It can lead to heart failure and possibly death if untreated.

Sai Sudhakar has done more than 250 TAVR procedures in his career. "As a chief of cardiac surgery, I was very much interested in bringing the technology here," he said. "Obviously any procedure is not a single-man show. It is a team effort. And we have a dedicated team to move this program forward."

"In the past when the aortic valve is tight, narrowed, they had to open the chest and open the heart to take the old valve out and place a new valve," Lee said. "There's more increased risk. But recently with this transcatheter aortic valve replacement … we actually place a catheter in the femoral artery in the groin."

Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health

Dr. Chittoor Sai Sudhakar is chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UConn Health.

A new aortic valve is sent on a wire at the tip of the catheter to the heart, pushing the old valve, which helps anchor the new one, to the side.

Doctors first gave Rood X-rays and checked for Lyme disease, since Rood spends a lot of time outdoors, tending to his honeybees. He was sent home, but came back in December and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and fluid in his lungs, "in other words, pneumonia," he said.

"And they gave me a prescription and the doctor said, This is all I can do. If you're not better in 24 to 48 hours you've got to call the emergency room," Rood said. "Forty-eight hours later I was in the emergency room. I was literally coughing 24 hours a day nonstop."

He also could not walk up a flight of stairs. "I'd just have to stop and hold on to the rails because I couldn't make it," he said.

Hospitalized again, Rood spent six days on antibiotics. "They told me I was the sickest person on the floor and I didn't understand why they were saying that, because I didn't think I really felt that bad after the first or second day," Rood said.

His cough was under control and he could sleep again.

UConn Health

JuYong Lee, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., specializes in coronary and peripheral artery disease, interventional cardiology, and vascular medicine. (Janine Gelineau/UConn Health Center Photo)

Lee told Rood they could help him but various tests delayed his procedure, which was done May 11. He went home the next day. "I was amazed at what I could do compared to what I had before," he said: climbing stairs, walking up the slight hill from his neighbor's house, things he couldn't do before.

And he'll be able to take part in his annual ritual of participating in Memorial Day ceremonies.

"I've always been concerned about Memorial Day … In our town, they have what they call a pilgrimage," visiting eight cemeteries and a POW memorial in town, he said.

"They raise a flag … they lay a wreath down and they play the taps. The chaplain says a prayer and then we go on to the next one," Rood said. "The last one is kind of special … that's a special memorial for POWs." 

Finally, there is a speech. "This year they asked me to give it and when they told me this I had to think about what to do," he said. "At that point I started to meet with the people at UConn and they said, Yes, you can do this. You'll be ready for it by that time." 

Rood's theme will be freedom. "I don't think people really understand why people do things that they do," he said. "And I think that people have a desire for freedom. People have come to this country for freedom. They're still coming to this country for freedom. … And I'm not really opposed to people immigrating to the United States."

However, Rood is concerned "when they overwhelm our borders and it's not done in any kind of orderly fashion whatsoever. We shouldn't be just a territory; we should be a nation. Our borders should be protected."

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.Com.

How A Doctor Learnt To Innovate When A 73-year-old With Simple Jaw Pain Was Found To Have Advanced Head And Neck Cancer

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Medtronic's Newest TAVR Is A 'Home Run' On Deployment Predictability

Touting improved ease-of-use and predictable valve deployment, Medtronic revealed Tuesday that FDA has approved the latest generation of the company's self-expanding transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) technology.

"FX is going to be a really big improvement and the predictability of [the vavle deployment] has been really a home run for us," Sean Salmon, president of Medtronic's diabetes unit, and president of the cardiovascular portfolio, said Tuesday during the company's fiscal first quarter 2022 earnings call.

Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha said the company plans to start rolling out the new system in the U.S. Market later this fall. The company noted that a full launch is planned for early in 2022.

"Now this innovative system is designed to improve the overall procedural experience through enhancements and deliverability, implant visibility, and deployment stability," Martha said during the earnings call Tuesday.

Medtronic noted that the Evolut FX TAVR system incorporates the same supra-annular valve design that has shown hemodynamic performance superior to surgical aortic valve replacement across large-scale, randomized clinical trials. The fourth-generation Evolut technology is equipped with gold markers built into the frame to provide implanters with direct visualization of depth and valve leaflet location during implant. In addition, the Evolut FX system incorporates a redesigned catheter tip for a smoother insertion profile, a more flexible delivery system that allows for 360-degree freedom of motion, with a stable, predictable deployment.

The newest system includes four valve sizes for the largest indicated patient treatment range and the lowest delivery profile currently on the market, Medtronic said.

"The self-expanding, supra-annular Evolut platform has evolved considerably over time and has brought heart teams innovative features like recapturability, an expanded size matrix, and advanced valve sealing to help minimize paravalvular leak. Today, the Evolut FX system further refines a trusted platform with key product and procedural enhancements that make the self-expanding system easier to use with enhanced visualization capabilities for orientation and depth," said Jeffrey Popma, MD, vice president and chief medical officer for the coronary and renal denervation business and the structural heart and aortic business, which are part of Medtronic's cardiovascular portfolio at Medtronic.

Severe aortic stenosis occurs when the aortic valve leaflets become stiff and thickened and have difficulty opening and closing, making the heart work harder to pump blood to the rest of the body. Severe aortic stenosis often reduces a patient's quality of life and limits their daily activities. If left untreated, patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis can die from heart failure in as little as two years.

The Evolut TAVR platform is indicated for symptomatic severe aortic stenosis patients across all risk categories (extreme, high, intermediate and low) in the U.S.

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