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MURRAY — Utah doctors are attracting national attention as they pull off a unique and lifesaving open heart surgery.
Following the repair to her heart, 39-year-old Bristol Jackson will return home to Georgia Friday. She came to Utah because doctors at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray have established a track record for a procedure called "spiraling."
For the first time in a long time, Bristol can hear the healthy sound of blood not blocked, but flowing freely through her heart's Superior Vena Cava vessel. That's because the old is gone, replaced with a saphenous vein pulled from her leg. This time, the vein has been uniquely rebuilt.
According to Dr. John Doty at Intermountain Medical Center, "The saphenous vein is normally anywhere from three to five millimeters. But we can enlarge it to 40 millimeters or more — whatever is needed."
The technique has been perfected over the past 30 years, originally by Doty's father, and now by John Doty and his colleagues. Spiraling involves removing the saphenous vein from the leg, slitting it down the center, then wrapping it around a core. The process makes the blood conduit much bigger. The rebuilt spirals are sewn together. Once the core is removed and the new vessel is implanted to replace the Superior Vena Cava, it performs ingeniously.
There is little to no clotting because even though the Superior Vena Cava carries a larger flow of blood, it's low pressure, similar to what the saphenous vein was designed to handle in the leg.
Doty said, "We think we've got the technique down to where it's reproducible. Many of these patients now are 30-plus years out from their operation and still doing well. Once implanted and healed in place, we believe it can be in place indefinitely."
As far as Bristol Jackson is concerned, it's a permanent repair. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she told KSL, "I can do things now where I couldn't before. If I want to go somewhere with my grandkids, I can. If I want to go somewhere with my friends, I can."
Her mother, sitting at her side, echoed the emotion. "It's a miracle. I believe it's a miracle. This is her second chance for life."
Despite the increased risk the trip posed for her daughter, Destiny Rose Holiday said, "This journey was worth it."
