Coming June 28th: A conversation with Stanford’s Dr. Jack Boyd

I want to share something very exciting for all my MB family members, whether you're still on your journey or you've already been unroofed. And if you have been unroofed, the odds are good our guest on the next episode of Imperfect Heart is somebody you may know personally. I am beyond excited to be able to introduce Dr. Jack Boyd as our guest on the podcast Imperfect Heart that releases on June 28th. That's next Wednesday. Dr. Boyd is the Stanford-based cardiothoracic surgeon that has done more unroofing procedures than any other surgeon in the country. He's done many of the unroofing procedures from those of us on this Facebook page, including me. If you want to hear the process of what the surgery is all about, how it works, and what the typical outcomes are, please mark your calendar for next Wednesday, or even better yet, simply subscribe now to the podcast Imperfect Heart wherever you listen to podcasts. If you're struggling with making the final decision on surgery to minimize the negative symptoms of a myocardial bridge, you must listen to this episode. Here's an excerpt from Dr. Boyd's discussion with me, Jeff Holden, on Imperfect Heart. I don't want to minimize the significance of the procedure. I mean, we're we're we are talking about literally cutting on the heart in an open heart situation. But fear of the surgery really holds some people back from what they should do in their best interest. Has there ever been a case where somebody didn't make it out of surgery as a result of the procedure?

No. So we've done close to 250 of these now. And we've had no major complications. Our definition of major complications is no death, no stroke, no heart attack, no significant bleeding where they required a reoperation in the short term. And we haven't had anyone that's needed a reoperation because the bridge wasn't done completely either. I have trouble completely putting myself in the patient's position. But I think a lot of the concern of the being scared about having cardiac surgery are the risk of major complications. And it's not zero, but for us they've been very low. And then I think the recovery, right? There's a period of time where you're not going to be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it. And that's tough. And getting up that control, in my mind, I don't want to ever coerce anyone into surgery, but I think the right if the symptoms are so significant and the patients driving it. The cost of the surgery is the risk up front and then the time to recovery. And the patients that we've studied and we think there's a very high likelihood of significant symptomatic improvement. That risk is short, and the recovery period in the big scheme of things is short. And then hopefully we'll get you back to doing what you were doing before the way you wanted to do it.

Once again, that's Dr. Jack Boyd, Wednesday, June 28th on the Imperfect Heart Podcast.