Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1208031
14 Bill's six children weren't satisfied with that prognosis. And lucky for him, his country star son had friends in high places. Roger personally knows Jerry Ashworth, CEO of TIRR Memorial Hermann, and Greg Haralson, CEO of Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. Both recommended he call Richard Smalling, M.D., Ph.D., immediately. Not long after, Bill found himself sitting in an exam room in Houston. "When I came and I visited with Dr. Smalling, I wasn't sure that they could fix me. The words that I didn't want to hear were, 'I can't help you,'" Bill said. "But then pretty soon he started talking to me and just kind of visiting a little bit and then he said, 'OK, well here's what we're going to do.'" Smalling, who is the director of interventional cardiovascular medicine at UTHealth's McGovern Medical School and the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute-Texas Medical Center, wasn't intimidated by Bill's condition. Yes, his prior heart valve was failing and it needed to be replaced, but it was a procedure Smalling had performed more than a thousand times. Known as TAVR, a transcatheter aortic valve replacement is a minimally invasive surgery used to repair an aortic valve that has narrowed or does not open properly. In Bill's case, the previous valve was too small for a heart his size, which is one of the reasons it failed. During a TAVR, instead of replacing the damaged valve through open heart surgery, the cardiovascular surgeon threads tools through the femoral artery in the groin and inserts a replace- ment valve over the old one; the surgeon then runs a "balloon" through the valves and inflates them both to relieve any blockages. In Bill's case, Smalling also performed a more specialized technique known as a valve cracking procedure, in which the balloon stretches the old valve until it breaks. This was necessary since his previous valve was too small. "The old valve is broken and the new valve is taking over for it, and that's the right size," Smalling explained during a follow-up appoint- ment in December. He turned and spoke to Bill. Richard Smalling, M.D., Ph.D., director of interventional cardiovascular medicine at UTHealth's McGovern Medical School and the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute-Texas Medical Center, listens to Bill Creager's heart during a follow-up appointment. T M C N E W S . O R G