Local man, 24, recovering after surgery for aortic valve defect

Issac Kofroth, age 24, of the Bethlehem Community, is back home and recovering from emergency heart surgery that took place this month. He is unable to work for the next six to 12 months and a fundraising webpage has been started to assist him.

Kofroth was born with a congenital heart defect, but didn’t know about it until quite recently.

Earlier this month, Kofroth had to go to the hospital because his leg was giving him problems.

“My whole right leg went numb,” Kofroth told The Times in a phone interview.

He was taken to Frye Regional Medical Center, where it was determined his blood pressure was very low. CAT scans of his chest and leg found three blood clots in his right leg. Ultrasound imaging of his heart revealed another problem, a heart valve defect.

Kofroth was helicoptered to Duke Medical Center in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 8, 2017, and the aortic valve replacement surgery was done later that day. Doctors also had to repair damage to one of his heart’s chambers due to the extra work the heart had been doing to compensate and treat the blood clots in Kofroth’s leg.

It took about two weeks for his hospital stay at Duke. Kofroth’s medical bills are currently over $219,000 for his 18 hours at Frye and surgery at Duke (not counting the replacement valve and the Duke hospital stay). He estimates the bill will be over $300,000.

Kofroth did not have medical insurance.

Anyone wishing to donate to assist with Kofroth’s medical bills may visit his Go Fund Me page online at https://www.gofundme.com/issac-kofroth-medical-fund.