For Frankfort Woman, Silver Cross Hospital the Only Place to Go for Cardiac Care 

During a routine checkup a decade ago, Stacy Holland of Frankfort learned her heart wasn’t working just right, specifically, that an aortic valve wasn’t functioning properly. 

Her cardiologist at Silver Cross Hospital, Dr. Abdul Sankari, had been monitoring and ultimately recommended she have an operation to replace her aortic valve to provide proper blood flow to the heart and the rest of her body. 

Back then, Silver Cross didn’t yet have a structural and open heart surgery program. 

That was then. Ten years later, when Dr. Sankari realized the surgical valve was beginning to fail, he recommended she see Dr. Hazem Alhawasli, an interventional structural cardiologist on staff at the Midwest Institute for Heart at Silver Cross Hospital, now in New Lenox. 

First, she insisted any procedure be done at Silver Cross. As a Silver Cross Foundation Board member, she knew how much the hospital had progressed in its cardiac procedures during the past decade. In fact, the hospital’s heart surgery program, which turned five in 2024, is now among the busiest in the State of Illinois. 

Dr. Alhawasli said Holland was not looking forward to the possibility of another open heart surgery. 

“There was a long stay in the hospital, and a long recovery of several months,” he said of the original surgery done in Chicago. 

But, Holland and her husband, Jim, liked what they heard when they met with Dr. Alhawasli last year.

 What is TAVR?

Holland said Dr. Alhawasli was very good at explaining the procedures and the different options, including his specialty, Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR). 

TAVR sounded good to Holland, since it wouldn’t involve open heart surgery. And when she noted the doctor’s youthful appearance, he explained he had performed more than 500 TAVR procedures. 

TAVR is a minimally invasive approach to replacing the aortic valve in patients with severe aortic stenosis. It is an alternative approach to open-heart aortic valve replacement surgery. The procedure takes between one or two hours. 

Prior to the procedure the heart team orders a number of tests to determine the best approach for the TAVR and where they will place opening to reach the aortic valve. At the beginning of the procedure, the doctor creates a small opening where tubes are placed that will be used to deliver a new heart valve. 

The opening is either placed in the groin, neck, or space between the ribs that is close to the heart. The thin flexible tube with the new tissue valve is moved through the blood vessels to the aortic valve. The new valve is placed on top of the old valve. The new valve works immediately. The doctor removes the tubes and closes the opening. 

There’s no need to make an incision in her chest or to use a heart-lung machine. There also is no need for her to stay several days in the hospital, followed by weeks of recuperation to heal from major surgery. 

Holland’s TAVR procedure this past December took less than two hours, even though Holland’s situation was complicated by her needing a valve-in-valve procedure, where a new valve is placed inside the failing one. 

Advanced Heart Care Close to Home

“I have performed more than 50 high-risk valve-in-valve procedures, so there was no need for Mrs. Holland to go to Mayo or Cleveland Clinic or even back to a Chicago hospital,” Dr. Alhawasli said. 

“We are fortunate to be able to provide such advanced therapies right here. I know Mrs. Holland is on the hospital’s Foundation Board. I have a lot of respect for people who strive to provide such wonderful services to the community.” 

Six hours after the procedure, Holland was up and walking around her room. She was discharged the next morning.  

“I was in just overnight. And I felt 600 percent better. Before the procedure, I was getting tired very easily, just doing my usual daily activities,” Holland said. 

And less than a week after the procedure, the Hollands hosted eight people for Christmas, admittedly, with Jim cooking much of the food, and guests helping out, too. 

They already have resumed traveling, and, as avid skiers, just returned from a trip to Vail for some downhill action. “And we had a great time! 

“Everything with the procedure went well, and the people at Silver Cross – the doctors, nurses, staff and the anesthesiologist – when I explained I had a hard time coming out of it last time – were wonderful. That’s why I wouldn’t go anywhere else.” 

For more information on TAVR and other cardiac surgery procedures at Silver Cross Hospital, visit www.silvercross.org/heart