ALEXANDRIA, Va. (WUSA) -- John Shumann is 38-years-old and he was born with a congenital heart defect. When he was just 15 days old he had life saving surgery. He had a hole between the two ventricles, or pumping chambers in the lower part of the heart. Doctors closed that, but John also had problems with his pulmonary valve, which controls blood flow from the heart to the lungs.
John says, "I had the open heart surgery in 1993 to transplant a valve and they said at the time they thought the valve would last maybe 10, 15 years."
The valve lasted long for John, but over the last six months he began to feel his energy decline. He started to have trouble doing every day activities.
The transplanted valve he had was becoming blocked and leaking and it needed to be replaced. But this dad-to-be didn't want to be laid up with another open heart surgery and miss the birth of his child.
"To be there when the first child is born that's a moment you don't get back," John tells us.
John heard about Melody by Medtronic it's a new type of replacement valve that can be guided into place through a catheter in a leg vein.
Dr. Jim Thompson is an Interventional Cardiologist at Inova Fairfax. He says the Melody valve is sewn onto a stent; once doctors guide it into position, a tiny balloon inflates it and the new valve starts working right away. The difference to the patient in recovery time is huge.
"When people have open heart surgery they feel like they have been hit by a truck. With the heart catheterization other then having sore groin from the procedure we've done the next day they feel great and the valve is working right away", Dr. Thompson adds.
John got the melody valve and was able to be there with his wife Blanca as they welcomed little Benjamin into the world only 4 days after his procedure.
"Hopefully with this I will get a little more back and be able to keep up with Benjamin over the long haul," John shares with us.