Creating Hope

Ted’s Story

Handsome Ted was suffering from heart valve and lung failure until he met structural heart disease specialist Dr. Brijeshwar Maini and cardiac surgeon Dr. Brian Bethea. At 100-years and three months old, Dr. Maini and Dr. Bethea were able to perform a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure on Ted which helped him back to a better quality of life following a deadly issue he was suffering from concerning his heart valve. At 100, Ted was healthy and a candidate. But, don’t call the feat unbelievable to Ted.

“How can that be unbelievable, I am sitting right here next to you aren’t I?” says Ted. He was only was in the hospital for two nights. “People are living longer for several different reasons including assess to better health care,” says Ted.

Ted’s only other heart procedure during his life was for a heart murmur in 1954, where a balloon and stent was inserted to help blood flow through his heart artery. Ted a World War II veteran, lived in Japan during a portion of his life and worked as a buyer for housewares. He’s originally from Brooklyn, NY, and trained at Fort Bragg. He worked as Army military police during World War II in Algeria and Tunisia in Northern Africa. Ted has two daughters, one in Florida the other in New Jersey.

“I knew Dr. Maini and Dr. Bethea were right there during the surgery because I spoke to them. I had absolutely no pain. That was the unbelievable part. It was exactly as described. It (TAVR) worked.”

“I was dying two ways. Everything was wrong. I couldn’t breathe and my heart wasn’t working. I didn’t know when I was going to have a heart attack. I had two nights of that and then I sought out an appointment with structural heart disease cardiologist Dr. Maini and his colleague, cardiac surgeon, Dr. Bethea,” says Ted.

“Dr. Maini has the kindest and warmest of smiles and he talks softly. He doesn’t try to force you into anything. His personality is so warm. Dr. Maini got me back to a better quality of life without any suffering.”

“I can’t say enough about the nurses and people working on me before and after the surgery and about Dr. Maini’s office and staff.”

Dr. Maini didn’t walk away from Ted. He knew something could be done.

“Before Dr. Maini I had no chance to recover and no way to get out of the situation I was in,” says Ted.