NY man’s heart turns to ‘concrete’ after radiation treatment
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (WPIX) – Radiation treatment saved Robert Dorso’s life 20 years ago, but side effects that recently surfaced almost killed him after his heart became encased in a bone-like shell that doctors likened to “concrete.”
After two operations last year, he’s in good health again.
“They were sympathetic,” Dorso said of the medical team that treated him. “They were patient and they saved my life.”
Dorso received radiation two decades ago during his treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is what killed his identical twin brother at 23 years old. Dorso was diagnosed at 39 when radiation was the state-of-the-art treatment. Twenty years later, the lining around his heart began to harden.
Dr. Mohammed Imam, chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Staten Island University Hospital, said that usually this sac, or this membrane surrounding the heart, is like skin.
“It was replaced by this very hard plaster shell,” he said. “Literally, it’s concrete. It’s like bone.”
Dorso, an active man, gained 70 pounds of excess fluid in his heart, lungs and legs.
Doctors had to perform a sequence of two surgeries to decrease any risk and to ultimately save him.
“The transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, which is a minimally invasive catheter-based therapy where we were able to replace his aortic valve through the legs, that was able to get him out of heart failure and much better optimized for the second phase of the procedure,” said Dr. Gregory Maniatis, director of Structural Heart Disease.
The second surgery came a few months later, in which Imam opened Dorso’s chest to peel back that “concrete” lining.
On Thursday, Dorso reunited with his medical team, which included Maniatis and nurse practitioner Blerta Saipi, at Staten Island University Hospital.
Dorso and his wife Lisa are grateful for the outcome.
“You gave us our golden years back,” Dorso’s wife said to the team. “We have a future to look forward to.”
Dorso feels like himself again and turned to his late brother for motivation.
“He had such grace, he had such dignity, he had such strength,” Dorso said, crying. “I hope I did him justice, but I miss him every day, but he was an inspiration.”
Dorso’s recovery continues on the right path. His follow-ups at the hospital have become much less frequent and he and his wife walk five miles every morning.
