'New life' for region's first heart procedure pair
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation TrustA patient who was one of a region's first to have a new heart procedure says it helped her get her life back.
Valerie Wells, from Peterlee, and Lindel Carre, from Durham, were the first in north-east England to receive a tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER), at Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital.
It is designed to treat tricuspid regurgitation, a condition where one of the heart's valves becomes leaky, causing fatigue, leg swelling, and breathlessness.
Ms Wells said she felt she "didn't have a life" before the procedure but she "didn't think that way now – that's the difference it's made to me".
The retired nurse previously had a successful mitral valve replacement using open heart surgery in 2021.
However, she began experiencing increasing breathlessness in recent years.
"Leading up to Christmas, I was wrapping presents with family, and I was thinking 'this is the last time I'm going to be doing this'," she said.
"I could barely walk three or four steps without having to stop to get my breath back."
Tricuspid regurgitation is usually difficult to manage with medication alone and open heart surgery can be too high risk for older patients.
TEER is a safer alternative and involves inserting a small clip through a vein in the groin to reduce the leak in the valve.
'Incredibly rewarding'
Ms Wells and Ms Carre had the procedure on 6 February.
Ms Carre, 83, said she saw a lot of improvements almost straight away.
The retired teacher had been suffering with the heaviness of her legs caused by her worsening valve condition.
"I have much more energy, no breathlessness, and I can drive further than I could before – I'm more confident and more independent," she said.
Both procedures were performed by the hospital's TEER team, led by cardiology consultants Paul Williams, Seth Vijayan and Richard Graham.
Dr Williams said it was "incredibly rewarding" to see patients experience such an improvement in their quality of life.