Lillian Feldshuh, of Scarsdale, NY, an early recipient of a transcatheter aortic valve in 2006, received the Courageous Patient Award yesterday at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT 2010) scientific symposium in Washington, DC. The procedure was a success and Feldshuh, who will turn 100 years in just 7 months, remains in good health.
In 2006, Lillian Feldshuh suffered from aortic stenosis, a severely life-threatening heart condition. Even though she had been told there were no options, the team at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, led by Dr. Martin B. Leon, performed percutaneous aortic valve replacement on the then 95-year-old woman. On September 23rd, that team presented her with the award.
Mrs. Feldshuh was accompanied to Washington by her children, Broadway actress Tovah Feldshuh and playwright and physician David Feldshuh. She delivered her acceptance remarks to an audience of over 3,000 physicians.
"In June 2006, I was given the choice to die or take the chance to live. Naturally, I chose to take the chance to live. Maybe I'm a pioneer, I don't know. But I accept this award with gratitude and wonder. Who could have predicted in 1911 that in my hundredth year I would be receiving an award from the finest doctors in the world? I've had a blessed life. To reach this time and these years and be with you today, life is wonderful. I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Feldshuh said.
Still in an experimental phase, transcatheter valves may become a treatment option for people with a life threatening condition known as aortic stenosis, according to new data presented this week at TCT, and in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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