New heart valve operation – for 92 year old
Kathleen Condon, 92, is the first Australian to have had a valve replacement without an invasive theatre operation when surgeons attached an artificial aortic valve to a long rod and fed it through a small incision in her groin and up to her heart.
Once in place the frozen valve defrosted and expanded in a breakthrough for older patients for whom conventional surgery was not regarded as a good option.
Ms Condon says she is planning to head to a gym and exercise as soon as her heart recovers.
