Pictured above: Elliott taking the racing catamaran out on Lake Michigan for an easy sailing day.
Clark Elliott, 69, of Evanston, is a professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science at DePaul University, and the author of a neuroscience book on recovering from brain injuries. He is also an avid runner, with 16 marathons under his belt, has studied Tai Chi for decades and enjoys small boat sailing.
But a few years ago, Elliott began to notice he got winded more easily. He thought it could just be a natural result of aging, but deep down, he wondered if there was another reason. Thankfully, he listened to his gut.
“I was suspicious for about four years that something was wrong,” explained Elliott. “I finally got tested, and it was clear that my heart valve was on its way out. By the time of surgery I was getting out of breath walking up a single flight of stairs.”
“Clark had severe aortic stenosis, meaning his aortic valve — one of the four main valves of the heart — had become narrow due to calcification,” explained Mark Ricciardi, MD, a cardiologist with Endeavor Health. “He was not able to do normal activities without symptoms.”
Doctors don’t know what causes aortic stenosis. It is most commonly found in patients in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Elliott was referred to Dr. Ricciardi for a valve replacement. Surgeons used to have to resolve aortic stenosis through open-heart surgery — removing the existing valve and sewing in a new one.
However, in the last decade, a newer procedure has revolutionized how surgeons approach aortic stenosis. It’s called transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). With TAVR, surgeons place a new valve within the existing valve through a catheter in the leg artery. The new valve is then expanded to open the calcified valve.
“It requires no incisions and is done with just twilight anesthesia,” said Dr. Ricciardi.
Pictured above: Clark Elliott
Dr. Ricciardi describes TAVR as a “beating heart operation” that typically takes less than an hour. Patients experience little or no pain and typically go home the following morning. And because there's no incision, patients don't have much recovery time.
“We ask people to avoid strenuous physical activity for about a week,” said Dr. Ricciardi. “But once they go home, they can do regular everyday activities.”
By the third day after his surgery, Elliott could walk a mile. Then, to celebrate, he ran straight up 14 flights of stairs to his cardiology appointment a week later.
That summer, he sailed 650 miles on his 14-foot sailboat, sometimes in up to 9-foot waves, and put 200 miles on a 17-foot racing catamaran.
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