Riding the wave to recovery
Grateful patient gives back to the health care team who enabled him to return to his passion of surfing
Photo courtesy of Ted Scarritt
After riding his board to shore and collapsing on the sand, Ted Scarritt was met with a wave of uncertainty. As he struggled to stay conscious, the seriousness of the situation came into focus. The Pensacola native spent most of his time surfing and was worried his health condition would prevent him from getting back on the water.
When he arrived at UF Health Shands Hospital, Scarritt was diagnosed with critical aortic stenosis — the narrowing of a heart valve. He quickly received a transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure for the valve closing in his heart, which ultimately saved his life.
About 12 weeks after the surgery, with the support of his care team, he traveled to Fiji to ride waves of consequence — which can crest at 30 feet high — again.
“I am so thankful to the first-class team at UF Health Shands,” he said. “I would not be here without them, and I want to show my appreciation to them in any way I can for enabling me to carry out my passion and continue to ride waves.”
Grateful for a full recovery and hopeful that future patients can experience the same care he received, Scarritt recently made a generous gift to establish a fund in honor of the devoted doctors who preserved his ability to keep doing what he loves. The fund will support the research efforts and needs within the division of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and the division of cardiovascular medicine at the UF College of Medicine.
“It is an honor that he thought so highly of what we did that he was inclined to give such a nice gift,” said R. David Anderson, MD, MS, a clinical professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine and the director of interventional cardiology and cardiac catheterization, who treated Scarritt. “The funding will help my trainees attend meetings, do research and more.”
Another member of Scarritt’s care team, John R. Spratt, MD, a clinical assistant professor of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, also expressed appreciation toward Scarritt for the gift.
“It was a great reminder of the privilege it is to take care of patients with cardiovascular disease,” Spratt said, “and of the incredible responsibility we have to provide the absolute best possible care to patients every single day.”
A return to Fiji
Video courtesy of Ted Scarritt
