By Darby Kendall
Rosa Ingram has a new lease on life.
After finding herself unable to walk down her street without experiencing shortness of breath, Ingram took a leap of faith to better her heart’s health, and it paid off. Last year, she underwent a complex tricuspid valve repair at OHSU as part of a clinical trial — today, Ingram can walk as far as she pleases.
The 80-year-old Dallas, Oregon, resident had been seeing cardiologist Maziar Azadpour, M.D., in Salem for years to treat her atrial fibrillation, but in 2024, her stamina began to decline in a way her children worried about.
“My daughter, Marlene, and I would go for walks every morning, and we would walk about a mile. Over time, that became three fourths a mile, half a mile, and then just a short half a block. I just thought, ‘I’m getting old; it’s just life.’ Then Marlene commented one day, ‘Mom, your breathing changes when we’re walking,’” Ingram remembered. “I told Dr. Azadpour and he said, ‘Rosa, I’ve taken you as far as I can with non-surgical medicine,’ so he went ahead and referred me to OHSU.”
In early 2025, Ingram met with Scott Chadderdon, M.D., Howard Song, M.D., Ph.D., the Dr. Albert Starr Professor in Structural Heart Disease, and Firas Zahr, M.D., the M. Lowell Edwards Professor in Cardiology, at the OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute to discuss her heart health and surgical options to treat her severe tricuspid regurgitation. They gave Ingram three surgical choices to repair her tricuspid valve via a small incision in the groin, one of which was a new procedure as part of a clinical trial from Edwards Lifesciences.
“The Cardioband tricuspid valve surgery wasn’t one of the options given when Dr. Azadpour first sent me up to OHSU, and then Dr. Zahr mentioned it,” Ingram said. “The way he explained it, it was like a lightning bolt. I looked at my daughter, Fawn, and I said, ‘I think that’s the one.’ Fawn looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, I do too, Mom.’”
Ingram happily put her health into the heart team at OHSU hands with this new technique. She was approved to participate in the clinical trial and underwent surgery in March 2025.
Speaking on the importance of clinical trials, Zahr said, “Some patients do not qualify for available therapies, or the available therapies are very invasive so that their body might not tolerate it. Therefore, novel therapies that are available during clinical trials are less invasive, more tolerated and on many occasions have the potential of being as effective, if not more, than the more-invasive available therapies.”
Upon their first meeting, Ingram trusted Zahr instinctively and was eager to undergo the procedure. She explained that his bedside manner was welcoming, and he was happy to answer all her questions.
“I liked Dr. Zahr from the minute I met him. Fawn, who’s my skeptic, liked him too,” Ingram said. “When I woke up from surgery, he was there. He was so sweet because he went from surgery up to my room and told my son that I was out. I mean, he just goes above and beyond. He’s a heck of a good guy.”
Treating people like Ingram is important to Zahr, who got into medicine to make positive changes in his patients’ lives. He lives by his belief that cardiologists in academic health centers should be able to deliver tomorrow’s therapies to today’s patients with excellent outcomes.
“I love treating patients like Rosa, and I hope she enjoys a great quality of life that she and her family deserve,” Zahr said. “Seeing patients smile after being sick is like the morning sunshine, making me smile and keeping me warm. This feeling is beyond description!”
Ingram is grateful for the care she received at OHSU, where she felt heard and validated in her health concerns by her doctors.
“I can’t speak highly enough of OHSU, the care I got. Everyone was wonderful and nice and helpful,” Ingram said. “Thank goodness for doctors that listened to me and didn’t just discard me as a little old lady who was blowing smoke. I think that happens all too often, but not there.”
Ingram has now turned over a new leaf. The half-a-block she used to walk has grown back into a mile, and she’s excited to see what else life has in store for her.
“Just before my surgery, I booked an Alaskan cruise for myself, my son and his girlfriend. I thought, ‘I’m feeling so weak and so useless that I’m going to be waiting about on the deck, waving to them when they go on the excursions.’ Well, we went in July after my surgery, and I went on every excursion,” Ingram said. “When I say it gave me a new lease on life, it really, truly did. My granddaughter, Kym, has a baby who’s now 24 pounds, and I can actually carry her. I can walk with her, and I can play with her — so many things that I couldn’t do a year ago. What a blessing it’s been for us, for me. I mean, the kids are now stuck with me for a long, long time.”
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