“When I woke up from my surgery, my first thought was extreme gratitude. ‘I am still here.’ I touched my chest and only felt soreness, not pain; I couldn’t believe how it wasn’t that painful. I was just really happy that the surgery had a positive outcome, and so grateful to Dr. Russo,” said Lorraine.
Lorraine Leshko is no stranger to heart issues. More than 30 years ago, Lorraine suffered a dissection of the aorta and was transferred to two hospitals in New Jersey before landing at a hospital in New York City. Medical experts told her it was too dangerous to perform surgery. In fact, one physician dismissed her by saying he was skeptical any doctor would actually take her case.
Thankfully, Lorraine found a cardiologist to help manage her condition successfully with medication, blood pressure monitoring and imaging to monitor any changes in the dissection. However, in the middle of 2020, Lorraine developed a constant cough and as it progressed, she was told it was most likely asthma, but she knew something was wrong when she struggled to breathe.
She ended up at a local emergency department in Manahawkin, where she was told she had congestive heart failure and required surgery.
“I was so nervous because I was previously told I couldn’t have surgery, and I was petrified of what open heart surgery would be like,” said Lorraine.
The hospital team highly recommended Mark Russo, MD, MS, chief of the Division of Cardiac Surgery; director of Structural Heart Disease, RWJBarnabas Health, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) and associate professor of surgery at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her cardiologist agreed Dr. Russo was the right surgeon for Lorraine, and upon further research, she was impressed as well.
During a telemedicine appointment with Dr. Russo, they had an open conversation about her case and Lorraine explained her history. Dr. Russo talked her through the complex surgeries needed to help her. In October 2020 at RWJUH in New Brunswick, Dr. Russo performed a successful open replacement of her ascending aortic aneurysm with an aortic valve replacement (AVR), in combination with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Lorraine was discharged a few days later.
“When I woke up from my surgery, my first thought was extreme gratitude. ‘I am still here.’ I touched my chest and only felt soreness, not pain; I couldn’t believe how it wasn’t that painful. I was just really happy that the surgery had a positive outcome, and so grateful to Dr. Russo,” said Lorraine.
After some time recuperating, Lorraine returned for the final part of her journey to recovery. In December 2020, vascular surgeon William Beckerman, MD, assistant professor of surgery and associate program director in the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, successfully performed a minimally invasive procedure, thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), placing a stent graft in the descending aorta.
Today, although she is still in recovery, she feels better every day, both physically and mentally.
“Over the years whenever I would see cardiovascular surgeons, they would say, ‘Wow! What you have is so rare, we don’t know what to do.’ I am so thankful to Dr. Russo and to God, who I believe guided me to him. I am very, very lucky with my outcome, and for any patients who have had a problem for decades, whatever it is, if you haven’t seen a doctor to follow-up on what new procedures are available, I encourage you to. It saved my life,” says Lorraine.
To connect with one of New Jersey’s top cardiac specialists, visit rwjbh.org/heart.