The future really IS in Teddy

Teddy is out of surgery now. They've closed him up. Dr. Galantowicz says that there's less swelling, less bleeding, and they've closed his chest this time. The material that they made the valve out of has been used for about 5 years to make valves on the lower pressure side of the heart here. In the last year, they've started using it on the higher pressure side to make valves too. Children's is, apparently, the hospital with the most experience using this material in this way. So, in the last year, they've done this 6 other times. In 5 of those cases, the valve held up fine. In the 6th it didn't. When it doesn't, it fails slowly, so we'll notice how he starts to get worse and worse, and we'll be able to take him back.

In animals, they've used this material quite a bit. It seems to get the animal's own cells embedded into it, and it grows into whatever sort of thing that it's grafted to. It seems to do the same thing in people. But this is only 5 years of experimenting with it. That's one of the reasons that they didn't just go with this to start with. It's also why they didn't opt to use it on the conduit to his pulmonary arteries. So, best case means that this stuff turns into Teddy-cell created valves. Next best case, it doesn't, but it works for 3-5 years, and then we do something else. Worst case, it doesn't, and it fails. In 6 months we're back here, for another round of surgery.