[armymarinemom]

Do they mean his Aorta? How the heck did they get into the mediastinum to mess up a heart valve?

[LukeL]

I cannot think of any reason why this doctor would be in the circulatory system anyways. I could maybe see he nicked the abdominal aorta and as a result any major vessels below it were robbed of blood. I am not a doctor but this is my best opinion based on basic human anatomy.

[GraceG]

That is what I was thinking, did the doctor think he was operating on a vulcan?????

[kenth]

That’s what I was wondering. But the info about the valve comes from the poor wife, who is young and under tremendous stress so it’s probably just a mistake. Still, they really botched up a gall bladder removal to do this to the poor young man. Lap surgery at that. Prayers for the young man and his wife.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Don’t ask.

[M203M4]

They must mean the abdominal aorta? Trocar is inserted in the abdomen —> hits abdominal aorta —> hemorrhage?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Something must have gotten miscommunicated somewhere along the line, but you’d think Fox would have some editors around who took introductory biology and remember the basics. The article says the surgeon “cut her husband’s aortic valve, which supplies blood to the heart”. The aortic valve is where blood *exits* the heart, and cutting the valve wouldn’t result in blood loss, though it would certainly result in major loss of blood *pressure* and in poorly oxygenated blood, as a lot of blood pumped out of the left ventricle to the aorta would flow backwards into the ventricle, preventing the ventricle from filling up with newly oxygenated blood arriving from the lungs through the left atrium. As the first branches off the aorta, just after the aortic valve, the coronary arteries (which are what supply the heart muscle with oxygenated blood) would be first in line to get blood.

However, to get to the aortic valve, the surgeon would have to have first cut through either the aorta or the left ventricle — if it was the aorta (which is more likely, since the ventricle would be awfully tough to cut through by accident), it’s a miracle the guy is still alive at all. This would be comparable to rupturing an aortic aneurysm, which is one of the surest routes to immediate death, even if you’re already in the hospital and in the process of being treated.

[Osage Orange]

"A nurse runs out, 'we need blood now' and she rounds the corner and my gut feelings is 'oh my God, is that my husband?'" Jessica Read said. Read's wife said an Air Force general surgeon mistakenly cut her husband's aortic valve, which supplies blood to the heart, but waited hours to transport Colton Read to a state hospital with a vascular surgeon.

They may as well said they cut a carotid, or temporal artery...

It would have made about as much sense.

[LucyJo]

I think he cut his abdominal aorta.