Minimally invasive heart surgery and getting back to the gym
Rich Thomas is the first to admit he’s a type A personality – always in motion.
“Not a person doesn’t say that,” he said. “I’m totally alpha.”
That means Thomas, 59, likes being at the gym four times a week. He’s used to being at his job as assistant manager of Chatham Ford by 7:30 a.m. And he’s got a long list of things to do around his house in Harwich, like finishing the trim on his walk-in closet.
So, things definitely seemed off when he recently wasn’t hopping out of bed in the morning.
“I’ve always worked hard,” he said. “I thought, this is what happens to your body when you’re getting a little bit older, even when you’re trying.”
But Thomas’ issue wasn’t his age; it was aortic stenosis – a faulty valve in his heart.
“He was getting increasingly symptomatic – fatigue, shortness of breath with exertion,” said Saqib Masroor, MD, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Cape Cod Hospital. “It’s a condition where that valve that sits between the heart and the aorta is very narrowed and tight, so the body is not getting enough blood.”
The traditional solution for aortic stenosis is open heart surgery: Surgeons make an incision in the chest, split the breastbone, stop the heart, take the old heart valve out and put in a new valve, often made from bovine tissue. But Thomas was lucky to qualify for minimally invasive valve surgery in which Dr. Masroor went in through a small incision between his ribs to swap out the valves.
“It’s totally the same operation that you do through the breastbone, but you do it without the trauma of the big surgery,” Dr. Masroor said. “The operation is the same. You cut out the old, put a new valve in.”
Thomas had the surgery in early November 2023 at Cape Cod Hospital (CCH) and went home the third day. He considers most of the experience “fantastic” and has high praise for Dr. Masroor and Cape Cod Hospital staff. Following surgery, he spent one night in the ICU and the next day was moved to a surgical floor.
The drainage tubes were removed from his chest after 48 hours, and he had walked six laps around the unit, he said. The worst of the discomfort was removing his breathing tube and having to sit up for chest X-rays, but for the most part pain was manageable, he said.
Back in the Gym
Within a week, he was back in the gym doing cardio, and grateful to his medical team.
“Now, I’m lifting all my weights again,” Thomas said. “I’m slightly off from where I was before this started, but I can try to press 300 pounds, and it’s because of them. They were just awesome.”
About 25 percent of CCH cardiac patients qualify for minimally invasive surgeries, Dr. Masroor said, but he suggests that every patient ask their doctor about it. Patients are more likely to qualify if they have only one or two faulty valves, or only one blocked artery, he said.
“If you have many arteries and a valve, then one has to start thinking about doing a real open-heart surgery. Or, if people need a lot of bypasses – three, four, five bypasses, then you have to [do traditional surgery],” Dr. Masroor said. He’s pleased that options are available for Cape patients.
“That’s new techniques, new technology and new ideas, which is part of multidisciplinary treatment options available for patients at Cape Cod Hospital,” he said.
