LONG ISLAND, NY — You would think heart surgery on a 95-year-old would be impossible. But at North Shore University Hospital, one surgeon is showing us how he gave life back to one man, who has an undying spirit.
Jack Beteil realized that something was wrong when he became easily short of breath.
“When I started to walk upstairs I couldn't make it, I had to hold on to rail to get one flight up," he said.
Jack, who survived six concentration camps during the Holocaust, had a zest for life, that was being drained by a weak heart. He had cut back on his wood work and sculpturing, things that were his passion. That's when he met Dr. Bruce Rutkin, the Director of Structural Hearth Disease at North Shore University Hospital.
Jack had an aortic valve that needed to be replaced to get blood flowing to all his organs, and Dr. Rutkin presented a less invasive procedure, called TAVR, transcatheter aortic valve replacement.
The surgery exceeded Jack’s expectations, it was like his life was given back to him.
