Complete Aorta Replacement [Music playing] [Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Complete aorta replacement] Jared: On December 20th, 2023, I was just sitting in my office. [Text on screen: Jared Aorta Replacement Patient] Jared: And I had a weird pain shoot up my back and I called my wife. She said you need to call 911. They wheeled me into the ER room, got the CT scan and a couple of seconds later said there's going to be a Med flight here in 12 minutes. You're having an aortic dissection. Growing up with Marfan syndrome, that was always the fear. Marfan syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. [Text on screen: Bryan Tillman, MD, PhD Vascular Surgeon Ohio State Wexner Medical Center] Bryan Tillman, MD, PhD: There's a genetic weakening of the blood vessel and it makes it hard to work on. Jared: And so when I heard the news that I was having an aortic dissection, I was, I was terrified. I didn't know if I was going to make it. I thought I was going to die. When I got to Ohio State, the first surgery I had done was by Dr. Tillman. He put a stent in that saved my life. And then on January 11th, I believe, I had open heart surgery performed by Dr. Henn. I did cardiac rehab for a couple months, did physical therapy, and then I met with Dr. Tillman in May. He said, we're going to have the rest of your aorta replaced. And he said he would call us back in a couple of days with more details because he wanted to meet with all of the doctors and all the surgeons that he could, with Dr. Henn, with Dr. Orion, and really set out a plan. Dr. Tillman: These teams that, you know, on most any other day do different jobs. The heart surgeons work on the heart and the vascular surgeons are fixing blood vessels. We actually meet as a team to discuss difficult cases like this. Jared: It made me feel thought of and really cared for. Dr. Tillman: The aorta is one of the biggest blood vessels in the body. So it extends all the way from the heart all the way down to basically to the legs. This was indeed a very risky surgery. A, because the blood vessels are not normal. B, because we needed to maintain blood flow. And so having the heart surgeons there to be able to help us deliver blood flow while we're doing our work was critically important. That whole team has to come together. Jared: And so on August 14th, I had another open heart surgery to replace the rest of my aorta. The cardiac ICU at Ohio State is amazing. Dr. Tillman: The road to recovery is long and you know, I got to witness Jared as he kind of marched through like a trooper, by the way, some of the most major surgeries done in our hospital system. Jared: Before everything happened, I told my mom and my wife that I wanted to run the Ohio State 4 Miler. That was a goal of mine. And then everything happened and we got out of the hospital on January 26th and I told my wife, I said I still want to at least walk the Ohio State 4 Miler. So that was the first milestone we hit, was being able to walk 4 miles in the heart of Columbus. I'm just next to where I spent 37 days in the hospital. And then it helped to finish on the 50 yard line, because I'm a huge Ohio State fan. [Text on screen: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center For more information, visit: wexnermedical.osu.edu/heart] [Music fades]