Cardiologists at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles have successfully implanted Max Page with an artificial heart valve, avoiding open heart surgery to repair a leaking valve.
The child actor has recurring roles in Disney Channel's I Didn't Do It and The Young and the Restless, but most people fondly remember him as the little Darth Vader in Volkswagen's 2011 Super Bowl ad. Page is now 10 years old and suffers from Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart disease, and was diagnosed recently as having conduit stenosis as well. Conduit stenosis is a condition that restricts blood flow from the heart's right ventricle to the lungs because of a narrowing in the pulmonary valve.
Dr. Frank Ing, pediatric interventional cardiologist and co-director of the Heart Institute at CHLA, said the procedure was a success, and hopes that Page's new heart valve will last the boy a long time now that function in his pulmonary valve has been restored. Tests done after the surgery also showed that Page's heart function has significantly improved.
After receiving a new heart valve on July 30, Page on Tuesday also got a pulse generator for his pacemaker replaced, going under the knife for the second time within 34 days. Implanted into the abdominal wall, the device is tasked with keeping track of the boy's heart rhythm via electrodes sewn into the heart. With an electronic impulse, the pacemaker pulse generator maintains the right heart rate for Page depending on what his current activities are. The device is battery-operated, though, so he's going to have to get a replacement after five or seven years.
After receiving his Melody valve, an artificial valve made from a cow's valve, Page was able to leave the hospital the next day, a far different outcome than the stay required after open heart surgery. His mother said he experienced some soreness but was still able to move and jump around for Ing the morning after his surgery.
"I'm feeling good," said Page before he was discharged.
Born with a congenital heart defect, the boy had his first surgery when he was three months old. The procedure for the Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve marks his 10th.
The Melody received premarket approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this year but has been previously utilized in federally designated humanitarian device interventions. Had the Melody device not worked for Page, he would have needed to undergo open-heart surgery to get a new pulmonary valve. His last open-heart surgery had him hooked up on morphine for several days and left him with a 10-inch scar on his chest.
Photo: Chris Isherwood | Flickr
