It’s Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day!!!
Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: February 22, 2025
Today, on Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day, let’s raise awareness to this under-diagnosed disease and celebrate the life-saving heart valve surgery of Daphine, a courageous 12-year old girl from Uganda!
Daphine’s Symptoms and Struggles
A sweet girl whose smile lights up the room, Daphine was diagnosed with severe rheumatic mitral valve disease.
As a result, Daphine experienced an overwhelming inability to breathe. She also struggled with fatigue. Her symptoms were so bad that Daphine couldn’t do the simplest things including eating. Similar to other children with heart valve disease, Daphine was undersized for her age.
Thanks to Dr. Tom Mwambu at the Uganda Heart Institute, Daphine had a successful a mitral valve repair that included a ring annuloplasty with a 31 millimeter ring along with a tricuspid valve repair. Dr. Pranava Sinha, of the University of Minnesota, assisted Dr. Mwambu during Daphine’s procedure.
Daphine’s Post-Op Update
After surgery, Daphine is doing great. By her third day post-op, Daphine was eating and cheering that she was not exhausted. As part of her recovery, a nurse handed her a pinwheel and showed Daphine how to use it. Daphine blew with all her might, but the wheel did not turn.
The nurse then handed her bubbles and within seconds Daphine was sending bubbles across the ICU as she exercised her lungs. Once she was moved to the step-down unit, Daphine blew a strong breath and the pinwheel spun wildly. Her pride and excitement were evident in her huge smile.
How Did We Learn About Daphine?
As you may know, I am passionate about helping children with heart disease. Since launching HeartValveSurgery.com, our community has helped children in El Salvador, Philippines, Nigeria and Uganda get the life-saving, cardiac care they deserve.
Our partner in this work is Gift of Life International. Gift of Life is a wonderful, non-profit organization that has helped more than 52,000 children in over 80 countries across 5 continents get treatment for heart disease. In 2024, Gift of Life organized the treatment of more than 5,000 children in just one year.
Gift of Life International provides life-saving surgery to a child every 99 minutes by empowering doctors and nurses with the tools, training, funding and support they need to treat children in their country of birth.To learn about how you can support Gift of Life, click here.
Celebrating Daphine and Valve Awareness Day!
It is serendipitous that we could share Daphine’s success story on Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day. The lack of awareness to valvular disorders including aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation is downright scary. Consider these statistics:
- 25,000 people die each year from valvular disorders;
- 10% of people ages 75 and older have moderate-to-severe heart valve disease; and
- 30% of Americans over the age of 65 do not know what heart valve disease is.
As you can see below, heart valve experts are showing their support for this special awareness initiative. This is Dr. Eric Roselli, Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.
Here we have Dr. Marc Gerdisch, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Here is Dr. Patrick McCarthy, Executive Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.
That is Dr. Vaughn Starnes, my surgeon and the Surgeon-in-Chief of Keck Medicine of USC, and Dr. Craig Baker, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Keck Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, California.
And that is Dr. Doug Johnston, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.
Here is Dr. Bill Brinkman, a leading cardiac surgeon from Baylor Scott & White The Heart Hospital – Plano in Plano, Texas.
That is Dr. Edward Soltesz, the Donna and Ken Lewis Endowed Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery and the Surgical Director of the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure and Recovery at the Cleveland Clinic.
That is Dr. Tom Nguyen, Director of Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery and Chief Medical Executive of Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.
Here we have Dr. Chris Burke, a leading heart valve specialist from the UW Medicine Heart Institute in Seattle, Washington.
That is Dr. Marko Boskovski, a heart valve expert from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in San Francisco, California.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
On behalf of Daphine and her family, many thanks to all the wonderful members of the HeartValveSurgery.com community as we celebrate Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day!
Related Links:
- Today Is Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day
- In Uganda, Nsimire Gets Life-Saving Surgery
- We Help Johan Get A Healthy Heart
- Patrick Readies for Heart Surgery in Uganda
- Mohammad Gets Life-Saving Heart Surgery
- On Thanksgiving, We Help Give Life to Lil’ Alfred
- After COVID-19 Delay, Traver Prepares for Heart Surgery
Keep on tickin’ Daphine!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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