Mechanical Heart Valve Sizers… On eBay?
By Adam Pick on November 2, 2008
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of shopping on eBay.
Robyn (my wife) is pregnant and I’m finding that most baby/nursery products are 20%-30% cheaper on eBay than at Babies R Us or Right Start. Earlier today, I was curious… So, I typed “heart valve” into the search field at eBay. Guess what I found?
I could not believe it. I actually found an auction for a complete mechanical heart valve sizer kit! In case you didn’t know, mechanical heart valve sizers are used by surgeons during operations to measure the patient’s valve size.
A “valve size measurement” is used by the surgeon to select an appropriate valve replacement or valve repair device (e.g. annuloplasty valve rings) during the operation.
The mechanical heart valve sizers in this eBay auction are specifically for the Edwards aortic valve and Medtronic’s mitral valve annulus bands. However, I did some more searching and found a St. Jude bioprosthetic valve sizer kit for the aortic valve and mitral valve.
It’s amazing what you can find at eBay. Pretty soon, I imagine you will be able to buy stem cell, heart valve replacements online.
Keep on tickin!
Adam
Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder
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Jennifer Sanchez says on November 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am |
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Yesterday afternoon (November 7) my husband had an aortic valve replacement at the Heart Hospital of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I cannot say enough good things about this hospital, he is already looking great and walking around. One of the things they did here that I have not heard mentioned on your webside is to give him a 3-day local anesthetic pump for his chest, so that when he does his breathing exercises, etc., there is no pain. This pump was actually inserted at the end of his surgery. The Doctor said he was born with a deformed valve, so he replaced the aortic valve and he is looking forward, at age 55, to feeling normal for the first time in his life! Many thanks for your wonderful website. Jennifer in New Mexico |
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