Robot-Assisted, Minimally-Invasive
Closed-Chest Open-Heart Surgery to Repair
Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP)

This is a discussion from the patient point of view of my discovery of having Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) and the robotically-assisted, minimally-invasive surgery that I took advantage of to correct the problem. I hope you find it interesting, informative, and maybe a bit humorous. It is written to give the patient perspective to help others who are facing a similar situation to imagine what they may be facing.

This all took place in 2003, with the surgery on August 5.

I considered rewriting this documentation of my surgery to be more third person and factual, but decided that the original story form might better help others who may have to go through the same sort of procedure, since there will be parts that become more significant as a person progresses through their healing. I’m sorry that I haven’t had time to go back, clean up sentences, and make all the verb tenses consistent – I just didn’t have enough lie-around-in-bed time.

Click here or on the heart to read the amazing journey of this real-life story

Throughout the story, click on the jump table at the top to go to another section

or use the navigation arrows at the top left