‘Prayers for Glo!’: Local resident has ‘reconstructed’ heart

Gloria Vaughn is all smiles as she thinks about the time she will spend this spring at her grandchildren's sports activities.

"I have always appreciated my life and I try to focus on the future instead of the past," Vaughn said. "I am truly blessed to be here!"

Vaughn, 64, has had more than her fair share of surgeries to correct heart problems. Born with a heart murmur in 1954, she was followed annually by her pediatrician and a pediatric cardiologist. When she was 16, doctors performed a cardiac catheterization to look inside her heart.

"I was told I had a narrowed aortic valve, but the doctor told me to wait as many years as possible before getting it repaired, because technology was evolving rapidly, and better procedures would be coming," she said.

Since she wasn't having problems at that time, the doctor recommended continued follow-up.

"I lived a very active life as a child, playing softball and cheerleading in junior and senior high school," Vaughn said. "I went to business school and continued playing in adult women's softball leagues in my 20s and early 30s."

She also got married and had a son. But when she was 43 years old, she began to struggle with severe shortness of breath and problems with chronic fatigue.

"I couldn't run up the stairs without being out of breath," she recalled.

In 1998, doctors scheduled her for a mechanical aortic valve replacement. During surgery, which was complicated, her pulmonary artery was injured, and the root of her aorta was partially torn and repaired. Still, Vaughn recovered and went on with her life, scheduling annual checkups with her cardiologist.

Aneurysm diagnosed

2017 was a difficult year. She underwent hip surgery and then fell and fractured her femur. She also was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram. In the fall of 2017, Vaughn was diagnosed with an aneurysm in her thoracic ascending aorta by her cardiologist, Dr. Steven Carr.

"An aneurysm is basically a bulge in the artery wall that, if left untreated, can burst, causing a life-threatening problem," said Dr. Paul Robison, MD, medical director of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at SoutheastHEALTH. "When Gloria's aneurysm was first discovered it was just under the 5 centimeter size when we would recommend surgery."

"I was shocked when they found the aneurysm, because I had no symptoms of any kind," Vaughn said. "Within 11 months, though, it had grown to 6 centimeters, and I was referred to Dr. Robison for yet another heart surgery. I was very worried this time. I had every confidence in Dr. Robison's expertise and experience, but I was afraid of how my body would respond since I had been through so much already within the past year. I really was worried I wouldn't survive."

Dr. Robison, a cardiothoracic surgeon, specializes in high-risk heart surgeries. He was director of cardiovascular programs at hospitals in Illinois, Arkansas and Missouri before being recruited to lead the cardiovascular and thoracic surgery team at SoutheastHEALTH. During his cardiovascular fellowship training, he served as a research fellow in the Artificial Heart Research Laboratory at the University of Utah and worked with the team who developed an artificial heart called the Utah-100 in the late 1980s. At SoutheastHEALTH, he performs more than 50 major valve procedures each year, with the majority classified as high risk.

High-risk procedure

After reviewing Gloria Vaughn's medical records and past heart procedures, Dr. Robison knew that the aneurysm surgery would be more than just a high-risk procedure; it would be extremely risky.

"Her previous valve surgery in 1998 went poorly and had damaged her heart," Dr. Robison said. "Additionally, the old heart valve was mechanical, requiring Mrs. Vaughn to take a powerful blood thinner for the rest of her life. She basically needed three procedures at the same time to replace her old mechanical valve, repair the large aneurysm and then repair a tear at the root of her aorta that apparently had occurred during the last surgery. We basically had to reconstruct the root of her heart."

Gloria's family and friends rallied around her. On the day of her surgery in October 2018, many came to the hospital to say prayers and wait for her to come out of recovery. At one point, the group took a photo in the waiting room, with everyone making heart signs with their hands, calling them heartfelt "Prayers for Glo!"

Over three hours, Dr. Robison implanted a new valve and effectively took apart and then replaced and repaired the damaged parts of Gloria's heart vessels. "I replaced the ascending aorta and transverse aortic arch, removed the aneurysm and repaired the main pulmonary artery. Any one of these areas could have caused Gloria to die within a few years if not treated."

Blood flow to her heart was stopped for just over 30 minutes during the operation using a hypothermic technique so that Dr. Robison could make the delicate repairs. Against the odds, Gloria Vaughn made it through surgery. Today, she is back at work as a medical staff credentialing specialist at SoutheastHEALTH.

"A few days following surgery, I had to have a pacemaker implanted by cardiologist Dr. Gabe Soto because of the extent of repair necessary to my heart, but I feel fine now, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family and friends," she said.

"Her heart problems are now fixed from my point of view, with no more aneurysm and no longer any need for lifelong blood thinner medication," Dr. Robison said. "She has a repaired heart and is back to work. I think Gloria is an incredibly brave person. She's an example of why I work so hard for my patients. I want her to live the best life possible."