Clipped, Not Cut: MitraClip Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe mitral valve repair with a clip delivered by catheter rather than open-heart surgery. Most came to it breathless, after years of blaming age, anxiety or a 'mild' leak on a report that did not match how they felt, and some had been judged too old or frail for surgery or had already had their chest opened for a bypass. The writers include a sheep farmer in County Cork, a chicken rice hawker in Singapore, a flamenco teacher in Seville, a guitar maker in Lisbon, a paramedic in Cape Town, a retired sheriff reading his consent form, and a former headmaster who spent three days on the road to be seen in Addis Ababa. Places run from Tromsø to Harare. Family members write from waiting rooms, a taxi driver in Birmingham relies on his son to translate, and a woman in Berlin learns to ask for an interpreter. Accounts cover kidney disease and contrast dye, radiation damage decades after lymphoma, an irregular heartbeat feeding the leak, a pacemaker, an insurance denial overturned, and the fear of being put to sleep. Afterwards people describe singing, swimming, cycling and working again. Not every result was neat: one clip let go of one side, another man needed a second procedure, and some were left with a smaller leak that stayed.

Who it's for

For people with a leaking mitral valve weighing up a clip procedure, for those whose date is already set, and for the husbands, wives, sons and daughters who drive, wait and worry.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 243 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.