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My father had an undiagnosed bicuspid aortic valve. He collapsed while swimming when he was in his early 60’s, thankfully in the shallow end of the pool. He was
by _sword 3y ago
My father had an undiagnosed bicuspid aortic valve. He collapsed while swimming when he was in his early 60’s, thankfully in the shallow end of the pool. He was pulled out unresponsive by lifeguards, brought to a hospital, and thank God woke up. A few weeks later and at a better hospital than our local one, he has a porcine valve installed. That lasted about 20 years. Thanks to his preference to avoid doctors during COVID, a few medical issues occurred simultaneously and the worst ended up happening - endocarditis, or an infection of the heart around this replaced valve. He almost died a second time last year from this, but he survived emergency open heart surgery that replaced the valve and cut away a section of infected aorta.
Until this year he would always swears that he was the unluckiest person. Now he’s 82 and still alive after all this and he feels lucky.
Go to your doctors regularly, get screened, and don’t put off procedures until they’re an emergency.
- markdown 3y agoSaved by lifeguards, doctors and nurses, inventors of medical apparatus, heart surgeons, but a deity gets the thanks. SMH.
- showdeadplease 3y ago[dead]
- whatshisface 3y agoThe people you listed don't get to decide who they will be able to save. It is up to unpredictable factors beyond anyone's control most of the time. To put it another way, do they get the blame when they don't save someone? Of course not, because nobody really controls those outcomes.
- markdown 3y agoUnpredictable factors? If they didn't provide care to the patient, the patient would die. He lived because they came into work and tended to him.
- _sword 3y agoYou forgot to list the pig that was sacrificed to supply the first valve, the EMS teams, the ambulance manufacturers, the saline suppliers, the autoclaves, the blood donors, the vasopressors, the fungus that may have excreted antibiotics, and much more of the technical as well as flesh and blood and bone supply chain that goes into saving a person. When on a religious trip to Israel, his cardiologist placed a written prayer in the Western Wall during one of the scariest periods for my father.
- markdown 3y agoThanks for listing more. I think it'd be better to summarise it all by thanking science. I'm glad the cardiologist has developed a way to manage the suffering we all go through in this hard life, but his delusions about some deity reading a piece of paper he stuck in the wall had nothing to do with your father's recovery.
- Aerbil313 3y agoThe amount of religion-hate and mocking that goes on HN is baffling.
- fuckingkike 3y ago[dead]
- wddkcs 3y agoWhere's your scientific evidence it didn't help? You've run experiments and collected data? This kind of base anti-theism is counterproductive and ultimately meaningless.
- markdown 3y agoThe burden of proof is on the person asserting that this magic happened. On the contrary, it's counterproductive to be such a horrible human being that you disregard the efforts of the people who saved the life of your father. My calling that out and trying to shame that horrible behaviour is very meaningful. If I'm successful, the world will be improved.
- nradov 3y agoMedical evidence doesn't support screening for that type of congenital heart defect unless the patient has some specific symptoms or risk factors. https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/ https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/ There is no reliable evidence that going for regular doctor visits improves outcomes for healthy adults. Obviously if someone has a known heart condition then their doctors may recommend more frequent follow-up care but for the rest of us the old recommendation to get an annual physical exam no longer applies. https://time.com/5095920/annual-physical-exam/ https://time.com/5095920/annual-physical-exam/