Thanks for the ping. I didn’t see it. This is a catastrophic case and the information doesn’t add up.
First off, the aortic valve is in the heart, so I don’t see how an abdominal surgery could get that far off. It was probably his abdominal aorta, and that can happen, albeit extremely rare.
Second - David Grant Medical Center is a tertiary care USAF hospital. They do (or did when I was active duty) cardiac surgery. There should have been a qualified vascular surgeon available.
Third - why did a 20 year old male need his gallbladder removed? That’s usually a disease of middle age, or of females.