Kathi’s Story

I have a new lease on life, living it to the max.

When nurses require health care, they can be anxious patients because they know what to expect during their scheduled procedures. Kathi Bailey, who is a retired registered nurse, knows that only too well because she was apprehensive before undergoing surgery at Penn Highlands DuBois to repair her aortic valve.

Although she had occasional swelling of her feet, she was not aware that there was a concern until an echocardiogram prior to knee surgery revealed that her aortic valve was not properly opening. Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) was recommended to repair the valve. TAVR is a minimally invasive valve replacement procedure which is similar to placing a stent inside an artery. A catheter, a thin wire or tube, is threaded through the femoral artery in the groin to the diseased valve to place the new valve inside the damaged one. Once the new valve is expanded, blood is regulated and begins to flow.

When Kathi was feeling apprehensive about the surgery, her son set her straight. He asked her if it was something she could fix herself. When she answered “no,” he told her to let the doctors do their jobs.

The St. Marys resident listened to her son and had the TAVR surgery performed by Brent A. Barnes, DO, an interventional cardiologist with DuBois Regional Cardiology Associates at Penn Highlands DuBois. “I could not have asked for a better staff to handle this surgery,” said the grandmother of two. “The care that they provided to me was phenomenal!”

While Kathi had the TAVR surgery at Penn Highlands DuBois, she had her follow-up cardiac rehabilitation in St. Marys.

“People do not need to go to Erie or Pittsburgh for cardiac care when we have such great care in our region,” she said.

She continued, “As a nurse, I know what to expect and everyone surpassed my expectations with the care they provided to me.”