William's Journal

I’m quite thankful Adam for this site! I live in a suburb of Austin, TX and had an “executive physical” in December 2024. I had no symptoms that I was aware of, but I received the results of a follow-up echo cardiogram at the end of December, on my 65th birthday. It revealed “Severe Mitral Valve Regurgitation”, which was quite a shock. I did quite a bit of research online (using AI sites, Google, which led me to your site - and I wound up reading up on the best cardiac surgeons for my condition).

I wanted to go with a “minimally invasive technique” (as would anyone who was in my situation). I found a couple of surgeons who pointed out that a cardiac surgeon needs to do at least 50 to 60 mitral valve procedures per year if they were going to be proficient - and that the typical cardiac surgeon only does 5 to 10 per year. If they weren’t doing enough to truly be “proficient”, then I had a much greater chance (perhaps 30%) of waking up after the surgery to hear the surgeon tell me that they “HAD TO” do a “replacement” instead of a “repair” procedure - and realizing the reasons why someone who is my age would strongly prefer a “repair”, with some statistics showing that the results of a repair are equivalent (or better than equivalent) to someone who never had a heart problem in the first place!

Through the grapevine, a relative pointed out a Dr. Luis Castro up in the Bay Area in Northern California, at Marin Health Medical Center - and sang his praises. Ironically, I had already stumbled upon him in my research, and thought it was pretty wild that his “Dr. Castro” was the same one I was following online and who was at the top of my list. Within about a week or so, I had a zoom appt with Dr. Castro and he had already reviewed the tests that I had done locally in Texas. (Let’s face it, when you’re dealing with the top heart surgeons or brain surgeons, you’re dealing with people of the highest intellect, and often, have to deal with egos that go with it! But Dr. Castro talked to me like I was his only patient, and patiently answered all of my questions…….leaving me to feel like I’d known him most of my life!). His office assistant, Elizabeth, was also so kind and patient that I was basically “shocked”. I found it to be the same thing with not only his P.A.’s, but also with everyone I dealt with at the hospital…….from the ICU nurses, to the nurses in the cardiac unit.

I’ve lived in Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, and now Texas - and I would have to say, that the least empathetic and qualified of Dr. Castro’s staff and the hospital’s - from Physical Therapists, to Occupational Therapists, to the nurses and the people who serve under them, were still more kind, empathetic and patient than the “best” I had ever encountered in all of the other states I had lived in. (I felt like maybe someone lied to the CA staff and told them I was a famous billionaire or something!). I still find it to have been a very surreal experience……….so thanks Adam for creating this website…..and I would encourage anyone to seriously consider Dr. Castro and his team, regardless of where you live!