Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
Glendale doctors fix Santa’s heart just in time for Christmas
Posted
Doctors at Abrazo Arrowhead fixed Santa’s heart this year in time to pass out presents for the holiday season.
That’s the word from the Glendale hospital, where a team of heart surgeons and hospital staff made sure the jolly old elf was ready for his Christmastime rounds.
Lowell Kuester is a professional Santa during the Christmas season, and he needed a heart valve replacement, said Abrazo Arrowhead Structural Heart Nurse Navigator Katrina Ostwald.
Mr. Kuester had transcatheter aortic valve replacement surgery in September at Abrazo Arrowhead.
“The first thing he said to our surgeons, Dr. Merick Kirshner and Dr. Nishant Gupta, was that he needed his heart fixed before Christmas because he is ‘Santa’,” Ms. Ostwald said. “Dr. Kirshner said, ‘We will fix your heart for sure but I want to take a picture with you as Santa later’.”
“We added jingle to Santa’s heart with minimally invasive valve surgery,” Dr. Gupta said with a laugh. “We all know Santa delivers happiness. But what happens when Santa’s generous heart needs some repairs? This is a truly heartwarming story.”
True to his word, Mr. Kuester returned to Abrazo Arrowhead Campus last week to pose for holiday photos with his doctors, nurses and hospital leaders.
“He had his TAVR and did wonderfully just in time for Christmas," Ms. Ostwald said. "He came back to Abrazo Arrowhead for our TAVR team holiday photo and to take his picture with the doctors who fixed him. It was an emotional and happy day for everyone involved."
