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Orlando man’s hole in heart repaired without open heart surgery

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A local man had a hole in his heart repaired without surgery! The cardiology team at Orlando Health and Arnold Palmer were able to perform the lifesaving procedure because of advances in technology.

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Despite his age, 62-year-old Carlton Walcott’s life was saved at Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital. He credits the team of doctors with giving him a new take on life.

“I thought I was healthy before it was finished, but now I have so much energy,” Walcott said.

Chest pains and dizziness sent the extremely active man to the hospital back in July. Doctors discovered he had congenital heart disease, a hole in his heart, and an abnormal draining blood vessel.

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“The blue veins are the veins that are abnormal,” Dr. David Nykanen, the Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Arnold Palmer, said. “They were draining to the right side of the heart that makes this side of your heart very big. Normally your heart is the size of your fist, his is a lot bigger.”

It’s a diagnosis that typically would’ve required open heart surgery but was repaired by placing a stent through a catheter.

“The stint itself directs the blood flow that should be draining to the right side of his heart, it goes there only,” Dr. David Briston, the Director of Adult Congenital Heart Disease at Orlando Health, said. “The blood that should be draining to the left side of his heart, goes there only.”

The procedure only took about two hours from start to finish, and Walcott was able to go home the next day.

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Now with a healthy heart, Walcott has spent all of his time re-modeling an entire home, working as a baker at Publix, and never sitting still.

“I just can’t stop working,” Walcott said. “I go to work, and I feel like I can do 8 hours more. When I come home, I still go in the kitchen, cook, get one hour’s sleep, then I’m ready to go again. I do like 50 jumping jacks a day; I do pull-ups 10-12. I do jumping jacks, pushups, I do everything.”

Walcott was the first patient doctors at Arnold Palmer performed this procedure on. Right now, they are preparing to perform the procedure on a second patient.

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