Mar 02, 2011

Surgery leaves college basketball player with scars but a healthy heart

A surgical scar spans the neck and chest area of a college basketball player who was born with a rare heart defect, The Columbian reports.

Derek Owens of Clark County, Washington, 19, was born with a condition known as a bicuspid aortic valve, in which one of the heart's valves has two leaflets, instead of three. According to the teen's mother, Laura, the family never told him that he had this illness, not wanting to impose limits on him.

"They said that this is a condition that nobody ever grows out of," she told the news source. "It never gets better."

But when her son developed an aortic aneurysm in his mid-teens, he had to be told that he would require surgery. Although the procedure was considered risky, surgeons from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center successfully repaired his heart, leaving the teen free to lead a normal life and to rejoin the basketball team.

According to Medline Plus, being born with a bicuspid aortic valve is more common in males than in females. Symptoms include chest pain, tiring easily and difficulty breathing.

For those who sustain scars from surgery, silicone ointment has been shown to be an effective way to reduce these marks. 

 

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