Like many Canadian boys, I thrived on playing hockey and eventually reached the AAA level during my two bantam years.  Being a goaltender, I was often called upon to go for long stretches without rest.  While I thought I was in good physical shape, each year I seemed to be a little more tired after each workout.  My mother noticed this first and took me to the doctor for a checkup.  They told me that I had a slight heart irregularity and should go for an echo.  The results pointed to a bicuspid aortic valve which they said would probably need to be replaced when I was in my 30's or 40's.  Every six months thereafter I went for another checkup and each time my heart was larger than the previous visit, so they kept moving up the surgery date.  In January of 1999, my heart condition was downgraded from medium to severe and they said I should not wait much longer for the surgery – my heart was now 30% larger than a full grown adult heart.  My twin brother has no heart problems.

I met Dr. Tirone David at Toronto Hospital for the first time.  He is a world renowned heart surgeon who has pioneered new artificial heart valves.  People from all around the world come to Toronto to have him perform their heart surgery.  The same day as my surgery, a girl about my age from Israel had a similar operation.  We were told many times that we had the best, and we only live an hour away from Toronto.

Dr. David agreed with my cardiologist’s assessment and we discussed the various options.  The plan was to have the Ross procedure done which as many of you know involves a double valve transplant, replacing the bad aortic valve with your own pulmonary valve, and using a donor valve to replace the pulmonary valve.  This didn't sound too bad – they said I would be able to resume a full, active lifestyle after the surgery including resuming goaltending if I wanted to.

The surgery was booked for August 4, 1999.  What happened next I only found out after waking up.  My Mom and Dad were waiting anxiously when the doctor came out mid-way through the operation and said "we have a problem".  Not exactly what you want to hear when your son is in the middle of open heart surgery!  Dr. David explained that the cause of my heart problem was not a bicuspid aortic valve, but rather both the aortic and pulmonary valves were deteriorated.  The doctors said the valves looked like those in a person with Marfan’s syndrome, however I don’t have a lot of the other symptoms like great height (I’m only 5’ 7”), elongated fingers and facial features, scoliosis, to name a few.  Marfan’s is a condition that attacks the connective tissue in the body and while not everyone with bad heart valves has Marfan's, everyone that does has bad valves.  I was very lucky because while there is no definitive test for Marfan's, it can be fatal and is usually only diagnosed during an autopsy.  You probably have heard of young athletes collapsing on the playing field - they usually have an undetected congenital heart problem.

This discovery required scrapping the Ross procedure and opting for one of two possible alternatives - a tissue valve or a mechanical valve.  There really was not much choice since being so young and with my immune system still being fairly strong, the risk of rejection was high and I would need the tissue valve replaced at least once, probably more during the rest of my life.  We took the doctor's advice "if this was my son, I would choose the mechanical valve".  They also found that about 2 ½ inches of the aortic ascension was paper thin – about one tenth the normal thickness – so that was replaced with Dacron.

The operation as it now stood was a complete success.  My new St. Jude valve is ticking away and my round of tests at 4 months post op, including a Stress test, Echo, Spirometry, and a Holter monitor, were all passed with flying colours.

Although my hockey playing days are over, I am currently teaching goaltending to young kids in the hockey school my Dad runs, I have resumed drumming in our rock band called Shrapnel (we cut our first CD last summer), and am basically back to normal.  Except of course for the coumadin, no contact sports, and no more alcohol.  My parents thought I would be depressed about all of this and at first I didn’t know what to think, but I feel I have gained a new level of maturity and have developed a real positive outlook on life.  After all, I still have lots of it to live!