For Richard Chin, the discovery of a congenital heart defect at Methodist Richardson Medical Center led to another bombshell diagnosis — kidney cancer — and now he’s a survivor two times over.
“The doctors at Methodist Richardson saved my life not once, but twice,” says Richard, a medical device salesman who has lived with his wife in Sachse for 20 years.
In both cases, Richard received the specialized care he needed: first to replace a defective heart valve with a minimally invasive procedure and next to remove a small tumor on his kidney with another robotically assisted surgery. And in both cases, he went home the very next day.
“I trusted Methodist Richardson with my heart and then my cancer,” Richard says. “Each time I had a great outcome and will continue to trust them in the future.”
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FAILING HEART VALVE
Two years ago, Richard began experiencing shortness of breath, especially when lying down, but he initially shrugged it off believing he was simply “out of shape.”
When the symptoms persisted, he went to see Nhan Nguyen, MD, interventional cardiologist on the medical staff at Methodist Richardson.
“I had bypass surgery about 12 years ago, so I knew it was best to get seen and not wait,” Richard says.
Dr. Nguyen ordered a complete work-up of Richard’s heart, including advanced imaging. When the results came back, Richard was shocked to learn he’d been living with a defective heart valve since birth.
“The imaging discovered I had a rare heart condition known as a bicuspid aortic valve,” Richard says. “It means that I was born with two flaps in my aortic valve, instead of the normal three.”
BAV can cause the valve opening to narrow or become blocked, a condition called aortic valve stenosis. That was why Richard had been struggling to catch his breath.
A bicuspid aortic valve is a heart defect that can lead to aortic valve stenosis.
WORKING AS A TEAM
Dr. Nguyen told Richard that he would be a good candidate for a minimally invasive procedure known as a TAVR, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, and referred Richard to another member of the Methodist Richardson heart team.
Derek Williams, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon on the medical staff, met with Richard to discuss the specifics of the TAVR procedure, which uses a catheter threaded through an artery to place a new valve within the old valve. Once expanded, the implant pushes the flaps out of the way and assumes the job of regulating blood flow.
“Years ago, valve replacement surgery was an open-heart surgery,” Dr. Williams says. “Now we can replace the valve using a catheter, and the patient goes home the next day.”
Richard was happy to get back to taking his dog Maxwell on regular walks.
SCAN REVEALS CANCER
Before surgery, Dr. Williams ordered a CT scan to ensure Richard was otherwise healthy. That imaging revealed a small spot on his kidney. While that concerned his doctors, they were determined to fix his heart first.
“Given how small the spot was, the heart team felt it was best to proceed with the valve replacement and pursue the kidney spot after Richard recovered from surgery,” Dr. Williams says.
In October 2023, Richard underwent TAVR surgery in the hybrid cardiac catheterization lab and operating suite at Methodist Richardson, just three weeks after his initial consultation with Dr. Williams.
“I woke up and realized how much better I felt because my heart was able to function normally for the first time in a long time,” says Richard, who went home just 24 hours later.
During a robotic procedure, a surgeon has the controls at his or her fingertips at all times.
ROBOTIC PROCEDURE
In 2024, six months after his heart surgery, Richard discussed the spot on his kidney with Gregory Lieser, MD, urologist on the medical staff at Methodist Richardson.
“Early-stage renal cell carcinoma, which is what Richard had, is often discovered incidentally because there are no symptoms,” Dr. Lieser says. “When tumors are small, we can remove just the tumor and preserve kidney function, which is hugely important.”
Dr. Lieser advised Richard to pursue robotic-assisted surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System to remove the cancer cells. The surgeon remains in control throughout such a procedure, but the robot provides pinpoint precision and a quicker recovery for the patient.
“The robotic program at Methodist Richardson does very complicated robotic surgeries on a regular basis and has great patient outcomes,” Dr. Lieser says.
For Richard, the prospect of having his cancer removed in a minimally invasive laparoscopic procedure was the perfect option, and he was sent home the very next day.
“For the second time, I was able to receive gold-standard surgical care at my local hospital with doctors I was familiar with,” he says.
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