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‘God, it’s me – Poppy McGee’

Uniontown woman undergoes world’s first robotic surgery for heart valve replacement and cardiac bypass at WVU

By Jim Bissett 5 min read
article image - Courtesy of WVU Medicine
Dr. Lawrence Wei assists Dr. Vinay Badhwar as the WVU Robotic Cardiac Program team performs robotic heart surgery. The robotic surgical procedures pioneered at WVU Heart and Vascular Institute have the potential to open new pathways in treatment.
article imageSubmitted

This photo was taken after the surgery to correct the bleed on Poppy McGee’s brain last year. The Uniontown woman is surrounded by her family (from left) daughter Mollie Wilcosky granddaughter Jaysa Johnson, and great grandsons Mazi and Damon Johnson.

Poppy McGee wasn’t counting on being a global pioneer, as it were, but that’s what happened.

And, medically speaking, she had seen better days up to that point.

First, there was the stroke. She fought her way back from it, with a patented blend of stubbornness and tenacity.

Then, the brain-bleed.

A nasty fall put her face-first on the pavement.

Doctors had to open her skull to correct the damage.

More stubbornness and tenacity ensued, and she again made it back – even if she could have done without the post-op photos, thank you.

Last May, though, she wasn’t so sure.

At the heart of it all

That’s when the Uniontown woman, just a few months shy of her 73rd birthday, started wondering if she had maybe run out of cards for the deal.

She couldn’t catch her breath or keep her weight.

Poppy weighed less than 100 pounds and was working for air every second, when Dr. Vinay Badhwar of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute had to put another set of cards on the table.

Her heart was failing, he said.

Her aortic valve was totally diseased, he said.

Her coronary artery was significantly blocked, he said.

She would need a valve replacement and coronary bypass, the surgeon told her.

On paper, both procedures carry high recovery rates, and based on that, Poppy had around a 90% of survival – on the table, anyway.

Recovery, though, was a more tenuous journey.

In her weakened state, there was around a 50% chance she would develop complications, hours out, or days out, with the standard procedure.

Plus, Badhwar was worried she wouldn’t be able to tolerate the aggressive, invasive procedure of conventional cardiac surgery, altogether – where the breast bone is separated, for direct, physical access to the heart.

There was another avenue, though, if Poppy didn’t mind being a pioneer.

“I don’t think we had a choice,” her daughter, Mollie Wilcosky said. “I don’t think Mom would have survived, otherwise.”

The procedure

WVU’s heart surgeons have been using robotics on successful procedures – some of them pioneering – since 2017.

Four years ago a team performed the world’s first aortic valve replacement via such technology.

This past Oct. 31, three weeks after her 73rd birthday, Poppy successfully underwent dual surgery delivered by Badhwar’s team with the aid of robotics – another world’s first – for her valve replacement and bypass.

No breaking through the chest wall to get it done.

Just a single, small incision on the right side of the chest, and a marked improvement of the function of Poppy’s heart immediately thereafter, Badhwar reported.

Nothing like standing in the doorway of a new frontier, the surgeon said.

“While we are still in the early days, this latest invention, the ability to perform valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery fully robotically, through a single incision, has the potential to open a new era,” he said.

“One day in the near future,” he continued, “this may serve as a platform to perform nearly all types of heart surgery.”

It definitely made a platform for a happy Thanksgiving, Wilcosky said.

Circling the wagons

Wilcosky, who also lives in Uniontown, jumped in to help her mom in her recovery.

In the days after her surgery, Wilcosky’s daughter, Jaysa Johnson, also a mom, moved in to help with her grandmother’s care.

“Jaysa put everything on hold,” Wilcosky said, “but that’s what mom always did for us.”

Thanksgiving couldn’t have been more special for the family, she said.

“You know how everybody talks about counting your blessings on Thanksgiving? Well, we really counted our blessings this year,” Wilcosky said.

Seated at the head of the table was Poppy, the matriarch. Still frail, but getting stronger. Smiling.

And not gasping for breath.

These days, she’s busy in her recovery, with physical therapists, occupational therapists and all the other requisite professionals needed for her to fully emerge again – in pure-Poppy fashion, as her daughter said.

More thanks … and one prayer

“We’re just so thankful for Dr. Badhwar and the team at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute for developing this procedure to help Poppy recover so well,” Wilcosky said.

“Mom really is the matriarch,” she said. “She holds this family together. Now we just have to keep her eating and get her stronger.”

And, in the time of this season, with its expression of faith from all people, communities and households, there was something else, Wilcosky said.

A prayer, by her mom, who is normally private about such matters.

“She’d say, ‘Hey, God – it’s me. Poppy McGee. Please don’t let me die.’ Well, she’s still here.”

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