Piedmont Hospital performs first-of-its-kind heart surgery

ATLANTA — Piedmont doctors say they just performed a surgery that is the first of its kind in the world.

Channel 2’s Craig Lucie went to Piedmont Atlanta Hospital where a heart surgeon explained he had to get approval from the FDA to move forward with this new type of heart procedure.

“I feel better physically,” said Carole Peacock. The 76-year-old Canton resident became the first person in the world to undergo a new minimally invasive heart procedure.

“I didn’t want to have another open heart surgery. The doctor said there was a new treatment that they were doing,” she said.

The procedure has never been done before, doctors say. Peacock had the first transcatheter tricuspid repair in a patient who has a pacemaker.

Piedmont Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Christopher Meduri performed the surgery.

“There was never any option except open heart surgery that could be prepared to fix the valve problem while a pacemaker is in,” said Meduri.

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Peacock had a leaky heart valve which makes her heart work harder.

“I kept having shortness of breath, no energy and didn’t want to leave house,” said Peacock.

Meduri had a solution that required the FDA to sign off.

“The FDA agreed within 24 hours that this is a reasonable pursuit. This is the first one in the world. What we were able to do is do two punctures in her neck with a needle while she is asleep and one small one from her groin. From the neck, we are able to manipulate catheters to work ourselves around her valve and put two little sutures around the pacemaker where the valve is leaky and make that smaller as well,” Meduri said.

With Meduri’s careful manipulation, it stopped the leak and now Peacock says she feels healthy again.

“Now I can go with my girls Christmas shopping,” she said.

Meduri says they can petition the FDA to get more approvals, and they hope to be able to treat a larger number of patients in the near future.

Cox Media Group