Down days ‘off the cards’ for grateful heart valve recipient

At age 23 James Keith was fit, young, a keen surfer, and feeling 100 percent well when he visited his GP for what was intended to be a general check-up.

Instead, it became a turning point in his life when James’ doctor detected a heart murmur and immediately referred him to a cardiologist.
“They found out I had severe aortic regurgitation, which was a complete shock - I left Greenlane Hospital, went home, and cried,” says James. “I had to go back a week later and ask the doctor what he’d said to me because I was completely asymptomatic and didn’t believe it.”

Aortic regurgitation is when the heart’s aortic valve fails to close tightly, allowing some of the blood pumped out of the heart’s main pumping chamber to leak backward.

The diagnosis meant James would eventually need to undergo a heart valve replacement.

“I’ve been in the building industry my whole life, so I had to stop the heavy lifting I’d been doing at work and start blood pressure medication,” James says.

A combination of the medication and his meticulous attention to diet, exercise, and his overall health meant James made it to 30 before open heart surgery became the only option.

“I was about to go on a surfing trip to Peru with my mates when I went for a check-up and they said no, that won’t be happening.”

In December 2010, James underwent the Ross procedure – a complex operation during which surgeons took James’ own pulmonary valve and used it to replace his aortic valve.

“They then used a pig’s valve to replace the pulmonary valve,” James explains.

The procedure, which also revealed rheumatic fever years before as the cause of his heart damage, was a success. James was able to return to a normal life for the next decade or so – the ‘mileage’ you can expect from a porcine valve.

But in 2022 his health started to deteriorate again; fatigue meant he could only manage two or three days each week at work (‘I’d be wiped out and spend days in bed recovering’), and he had to stop his beloved surfing.

“It was such a hard thing for me not being able to exercise because I’d stayed so fit. My life just started to go downhill; I lost weight, my face was white, and the pig valve had narrowed so you could actually hear the pressure of the blood in my chest in bed at night.”

With hospitals playing catch-up following the impact of COVID-19, James finally got the call-up for surgery in March 2023. And this time, he’d receive a human heart valve.

“I’ve just been blown away by how good I feel,” said James, two months after his procedure. “After major surgery, you normally have a few down days but I’ve just been on cloud nine.”

He astounded his medical team too.

“You can expect to be in hospital for a week to ten days after the operation, but I was out in four. I’d had open heart surgery but my body just accepted it – I was off morphine, Panadol, everything after five days.

“The doctors said to me, ‘You’re testing us – but in the opposite way to everyone else!”

Just weeks after his surgery James was able to lie comfortably on his left side for the first time in 12 years and was preparing to embark on an exciting career change.

“I just want to thank the donor and their family so much – I just have so much appreciation for them and am so grateful.”

He is now steadily re-building his fitness and looking forward to the future and starting a family with his partner, Bree.

“I can’t really have another down day in my life, because how grateful am I to have a heart valve?!”