"That's my only claim to fame is that I went home in the same day," said Marvin Neel.
For the first time Scott & White Medical Center in Temple sent a patient home in the same day of having a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement procedure.
The procedure is when doctors go through your femoral artery to put a new valve where your old valve was.
"We can do that through the leg artery instead of doing open surgery," said Dr. Mark Lawrence with a Scott & White Medical Center.
Marvin was the recipient of the innovative heart procedure. Doing this procedure eliminates the need for the heart-lung machine and speeds up recovery time.
"We did the procedure at about 9:30 a.m. and we were done at 10:00 a.m. and he went to the recovery room and walked around and felt well and I saw them about 2:00 that afternoon and he was ready to go home so at 4:00 p.m. we let him go home," said Dr. Lawrence.
Dr. Lawrence says that although not everyone can get out the same day of surgery that's their goal.
"Mr. Neel did set a trend so we're starting to do more people quicker because of him."
Marvin not only improved the quality of his life in one day, but also someone's life that's very special to him: his wife of 58 years.
"I love my husband so much. I can't tell you how much he means to me. We're just looking forward to many more days together," Mrs. Neel said.
As for running a marathon his answer was simple...
"NEVER!" said Neel.
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