Patient Story of Jeff Oswald

My Story

About Me (In My Own Words)

my story starts in 2011 when I got hurt at work I fell 7 feet to the ground and dislocated both shoulders I had damage to my right knee also I had battles with my work and workers comp that raised my stress levels I ended up having a heart attack in June of 2012 I was very heavy due to being laid up I learned I was having heart failure my ejection fracture was 34% I was told if I don't lose weight I would likely be dead in three years. I was 502 lbs at that time I decided to get gastric sleeve surgery but before I could I had a bout with afib the day I went to the Er my heart rate was 200 over 100 my wife had to rescue me from a grocery store I almost passed out from being short of breath. Once that was straightened out I had my WLS in October of 2013 and I lost 134 lbs and got down to 365 lbs everything was doing better but that's all I could lose due to all my injuries I could not exercise and the weight slowly started creeping back on my heart was still skipping beats at this point even though I was not in afib I ended up before ng disabled due to everything. My cardiologist told me I was not out of the woods yet my heart was still enlarged somewhat and I still needed to lose more so I opted to get a second WLS done called Duodenal Switch this would take me the rest of the way I needed to go that was on October 12th of 2015. In June of 2015 they detected a problem on my yearly echo cardio gram they would not let me leave till I was checked out fully I was then told I had a leaking aortic valve which explains the way I felt lately that a repair would most likely be on the horizon for me. I started doing tons of reasearch on this condition learning everything I could I was set up with a surgeon in Philadelphia to talk to but I decided to get a second opinion. This was where I met Dr Raymond Singer from Lehigh Valley Hospital after speaking to him we changed our minds about getting a repair I have opted instead to go with a mechanical On-x valve replacement that surgery will be on February 2nd of 2016 I have high hopes for a positive outcome with this operation