A Habersham County firefighter recently became the recipient of a robotic heart surgery which was the first of its kind to ever be completed in Georgia.
Brian Mills, 51, underwent a totally endoscopic aortic valve replacement at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville and was able to go home 48 hours later.
“I asked them, ‘What do I got to do to get out of here this weekend?’” Mills said. “And that’s what we did.”
A press release from Northeast Georgia Health System said a typical aortic valve replacement surgery involves opening the patient's chest. This can lead to a recovery time that lasts several months.
Dr. T. Sloane Guy, a cardiothoracic surgeon with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and Georgia Heart Institute, chose to use the DaVinci surgical robot for the operation.
“Aortic valve replacement has been done with sternotomy but also through minimally invasive procedures with thoracotomy,” Dr. Guy said. “Those are great operations, but my life’s obsession has been to make incisions smaller and smaller and help patients recover as quickly as possible.”
Mills first discovered he would need a new aortic valve when he got a fever that would not go down.
"He went to an urgent care center, where tests showed he had an extremely low white blood cell count," the press release said. "He then went to the emergency room at NGMC Gainesville for more tests. Preston Ball, MD, an emergency medicine physician at NGMC, drew cultures to check for infections. The day after Mills left the ER, Dr. Ball called to tell him to come back immediately."
Ball told Mills he had endocarditis, a serious infection of the heart tissue. Mills, who had previously served for 17 years as a Hall County firefighter before joining Habersham County Emergency Services, eventually decided to have the robotic surgery.
“We did our annual physical training test at work a couple of weeks ago, and it was really crazy how quickly I recover after exertion now,” Mills said. “It’s pretty amazing. Even the person doing the vital signs before and after said, ‘Wow, you recovered quicker than anybody!’ I said, ‘Well, there’s some new hardware in there. It probably does work a little better.’”
To schedule an appointment with NGPG Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, call 770-219-7099. To schedule an appointment with one of Georgia Heart Institute’s cardiologists, visit georgiaheartinstitute.org or call 770-534-2020.
