In the early summer of 2020, Shirley Farca was told by a New Jersey hospital where her 104-year-old mother had been admitted for heart failure that there was nothing more they could do.
Shirley’s brother was not convinced. He told his mother he was going to call a physician and some trusted rabbis and would get back to her. That same day, the family arranged for an ambulance to take their mother to The Mount Sinai Hospital.
At Mount Sinai, Samin K. Sharma, MD, Director of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology, and President of Mount Sinai Heart Network, performed a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive procedure to replace a narrowed aortic valve that fails to open properly. She did so well, she was discharged two days later.
“This technique of TAVR is a real game changer,” says Dr. Sharma. ”It provides hope to many patients suffering from aortic stenosis who cannot undergo open heart surgery due to frailty, old age, and associated medical conditions.”
Shirley credits the physicians at Mount Sinai for her mom’s return to health, as well as Rabbi Menachem Horowitz, who does volunteer work in spiritual care at Mount Sinai and is a consultant to numerous Manhattan hospitals through Chayim Aruchim, a project of Agudas Yisroel of America. Indeed, after turning 105 years old, her mom attended her granddaughter’s wedding.