Canberrans with a potentially fatal heart problem will no longer be forced to travel interstate for a cutting-edge procedure. Aortic valve replacement in the capital used to require open heart surgery but thanks to new technology and a new cardiologist, patients are home from hospital within days.
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00:00 Watching these octogenarians enjoy a heart to heart, it's hard to believe each was on an operating table, undergoing heart surgery just 24 hours earlier.
00:11 They can't either.
00:13 Well, I feel alive again now. It's absolutely wonderful.
00:16 I feel as though I haven't even had an operation. You know, it's just amazing.
00:20 It's thanks to a minimally invasive procedure being offered for the first time at the Canberra Hospital, Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation or TAVI.
00:31 A high-tech repair of the heart's exit door, the aortic valve, which regulates blood flow into the left ventricle or main pumping chamber.
00:39 As time goes on with age and other factors, this becomes stenosed, narrowed or tight, because of which enough blood cannot come out of the heart. And if it doesn't reach your vital body organs, say such as your lungs, you can't breathe.
00:53 If I went down to the pulse box, the pulse would have left it up two flats, especially.
00:57 The hour-long procedure uses an artificial valve attached to a deflated surgical balloon, which is placed inside a tube and guided through a blood vessel in the groin to the heart, where the balloon's inflated so the new valve sits securely within the old one.
01:13 Previously, Canberra patients were forced to travel to Sydney or Newcastle for TAVI or have risky open-heart surgery here.
01:21 There's a long recovery time, even for a fit, healthy person can take anywhere up to three months, but at their age it can be longer, almost double, six months or more.
01:29 Dr Powell's patients are up and about the next day and home in two. He already has a waiting list and another senior cardiologist in training.
01:37 It's a lot more attractive for new doctors, specialists, who will see us as a beacon of attraction, they will want to come here.
01:46 Life's a joy again.
01:49 Winning hearts and minds.
01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]