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SALT LAKE CITY — Legendary football coach LaVell Edwards is recovering after having open heart surgery just before Christmas.
For a large part of December, Edwards said he experienced symptoms that seemed innocent enough.
"I had a cough during the month of December," he said. "I went to the doctor and got some medicine, but it still hung on. So, finally, he took an EKG."
Edwards said his doctor noticed enough differences with this EKG reading and other readings he has had that his doctor refer him to a specialist.
"I had an echogram done and they found that I had a valve problem," he explained.
Edwards said his doctors told him he needed bypass surgery, which came as a big surprise. Plus, he needed a valve in his heart replaced because it was almost completely closed off.
They actually showed the valve to my wife afterward and it was pretty much calcified all the way around.
–LaVell Edwards
"They actually showed the valve to my wife afterward," he said, "and it was pretty much calcified all the way around."
The family decided to have the surgery just before Christmas. Surgeons replaced the calcified valve with a pig's valve.
Now, Edwards said he's feeling a lot better and is regaining his strength.
LaVell Edwards was head football coach at BYU from 1972-2000. During that time, he won 257 games and earned the sixth-best all-time record among NCAA coaches at the time of his retirement. He led his teams to numerous conference championships and the national championship in 1984.
