Beverly Teachout

Beverly Teachout is lacing up her walking shoes again after an aortic valve replacement and hip and knee surgeries set her back on the right path.

For many years, walking was an important outlet for Beverly Teachout. The mother of four loved to wander the countryside near her Michigan home for exercise as well as to relax and rejuvenate.

"I would come home from work, change my shoes and go walk," recalls 67-year-old Teachout, who now lives in Winter Haven, Fla. "It was my time for me."

But a problematic right hip plagued her, eventually requiring a replacement. After the 1994 procedure, though, Teachout says things weren't quite right. She continued to have problems, specifically a sharp pain at the site of the artificial hip. For the next decade, Teachout tried to find a diagnosis.

"I went all over looking for a doctor to tell me why and fix it," she says. "I went from Michigan to Memphis, Tenn. I had blood tests, bone scans, CT scans, pokes and prods, but still no answers."

She and her husband retired to Florida in the late 1990s, but despite the sunny weather and losing 40 pounds, Teachout still had debilitating pain. She walked around the house with a cane, and sitting in a car for any length of time was unbearable. "I couldn't do much of anything," she says.

Finally a local orthopedist referred her to Mayo Clinic, and in January 2005 she saw orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mary O'Connor.

"She took one look and said, 'Oh, yes, we can fix it' just as if she was saying 'Let's have lunch,'" says Teachout. "After all the doctors I had seen, I broke down in tears."

It turned out, however, that hip surgery was not in her immediate future. Teachout had had a heart attack in 1995 and had been plagued by chest pain and shortness of breath. A cardiac catheterization and an echocardiogram at a local facility showed some narrowing of the aortic valve and minor coronary blockages, but not enough to account for the symptoms.

As part of the examination that patients undergo before surgery at Mayo Clinic, cardiologist Dr. Ramon Castello ordered another echocardiogram because Teachout had a significant heart murmur. That test showed a severely narrowed aortic valve, making hip surgery extremely risky. She had aortic valve stenosis, a condition where one of the valves in the left heart tightens and limits blood flow to the rest of the body. Over time, aortic stenosis leads to a weak heart muscle and possibly, congestive heart failure. Her symptoms indicated she was in the initial stages of that, too. Castello advised Teachout to remain in Jacksonville and undergo valve replacement surgery before the hip procedure.

Teachout credits Mayo Clinic for her lifechanging — and lifesaving — treatments.

"Patients with severe congestive heart failure symptoms have a 50 percent chance of dying within a year, and she was to undergo a major orthopedic procedure for her hip," says Castello. "If she would have had this surgery with the severe heart valve narrowing, she could have died during the procedure."

The challenge of diagnosing aortic valve stenosis is that patients — and often their doctors — don't recognize the problem. The symptoms, which include chest pain, dizziness, angina and shortness of breath, are similar to other ailments such as coronary artery disease. Many people also attribute the symptoms to old age and adjust their lifestyle when in fact their discomfort is due to a valve problem.

In March 2005, Teachout's malfunctioning valve was replaced with a porcine, or pigtissue valve, one of three types used. Mechanical valves made of titanium metal and bovine (cowtissue) valves are also available. Bovine or porcine valves are usually recommended for people over 65 because patients are not required to take a blood thinner for the rest of their lives.

Teachout was devastated when she found out that her hip surgery would have to wait. But she was relieved that her heart problem was detected before surgery.

"I truly believe if it weren't for Mayo Clinic, my children wouldn't have a mother," she says.

Finally, in September 2005, she got the go-ahead to have the hip fixed. The following April, O'Connor also performed a total left knee replacement.

"The infrastructure that we have here in the clinic — my ability, for instance, to pick up the phone, dial five digits and talk immediately to another Mayo physician or pull up a patient's medical record--really facilitates our integrated group care," says O'Connor.

These days, Teachout is lacing up her walking shoes again. She's as active as she was before the health problems slowed her down.

"I've started walking again, my favorite exercise that I had not been able to do for about three years," she says.

Teachout now walks about 2 miles four to five times a week. She can also tolerate longer car rides and took a month-long trip with her husband, Bill, to Michigan this past summer to visit two of their children. Happy to be back on her feet, she says she's thankful Mayo staff was there every step of the way.

"Mayo's commitment to the patient shows in all they do, from the greeting at the door to the goodbye at the parking garage," says Teachout. "That includes everyone and everything in between."

(This story first appeared in the January 2007 issue of The Mayo Clinic Checkup, a complimentary newsletter available to anyone interested in the latest news from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.)