MUSC | The Catalyst

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March 4, 2011

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY of SOUTH CAROLINA

Vol. 29, No. 27

New Heart ValVe ProVides lifeliNe

Above, Dr. Laurie Fladd with her family at a Cooper River Bridge Run. Pictured right is her stented valve being expanded into position under fluoroscopy.

MUSC offers Melody transcatheter valve procedure, quicker recovery By DaWN BRazell Public Relations

L

aurie Fladd knew the procedure she was to have done at MUSC was new. She just didn’t realize how new. When she found out the day before her Jan. 26 procedure that she was to be the first patient at MUSC and first in the state

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to have a transcatheter pulmonary valve inserted, it gave her pause. Briefly. Given that the only other option was open heart surgery, Fladd, Ph.D., decided she was willing. Fladd, department head for physical sciences at Trident Technical College and the active mother of two boys, had known

No. 3 RaNkiNg S.C. College of Pharmacy research faculty land NIH funding.

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since age 13 that she would have to have another open heart surgery for a valve replacement at some point. She was thrilled to see that she could wait long enough for technology to provide a less invasive method, she said. Interventional pediatric cardiologists Rani Bandisode, M.D., and G. Hamilton Baker, M.D., performed the procedure

and were glad to see Fladd up using her iPad the day after getting her valve. An open heart surgery would have required a week to 10 days for recovery. The procedure has been done on three patients so far, two of them children, and all were able to leave the hospital the next day. Bandisode said they are treating See Valve on page 8

PatieNt Safety Week

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Meet DeAnna

Visit a ‘Room of Errors’ and find mistakes that could be avoided.

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Global Health

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Classifieds

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