In her early 30s, Keri Pratt was at her yearly physical when her doctor noticed something strange.
“The doctor listened to my heart and said, ‘Something is different… that’s a very interesting sound,'” she said.
“He goes, ‘We need to refer you to a cardiologist.’ Instantly your heart just starts racing.”
Pratt was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve, a congenital heart defect where the aortic valve has two leaflets instead of the normal three.
“It meant was that the blood was rushing back into (my heart) and wasn’t going through,” she said.
A bicuspid aortic valve is a type of heart valve disease (HVD), a serious condition that impacts more than a million Canadians. It can happen at any age but is more common as people get older. It’s treated with a valve repair or replacement.
When Pratt was 39 years old, she had what’s called a Ross procedure, where a surgeon takes out a damaged aortic valve and replaces it with your own pulmonary valve. A donated human valve then replaces the pulmonary valve.
“To know that somebody lost a loved one and was willing to donate that part of their body to me… it’s the greatest gift you can give to someone,” Pratt said.
Get weekly health news
Doctors say the best way to detect heart valve disease is to have a health-care provider listen to your heart with a stethoscope.
“It’s really underrecognized,” cardiologist Dr. Debraj Das said.
“When it becomes very severe, valve disease can cause things like congestive heart failure, stroke and even serious complications like death.”
On Feb. 22, Heart Valve Voice Canada gave hundreds of Edmontonians the opportunity to be checked in the largest stethoscope check event in Canada at West Edmonton Mall.
It was the fourth year for the event, where cardiologists listened to hundreds of people’s hearts. In 2025, more than 300 people took part.
“A lot of people have symptoms and they don’t recognize them as symptoms of valve disease,” Dr. Das said about last year’s event. “We were able to detect murmurs in lots of those people.”
-
![]()
Colorectal Cancer Canada makes national call to “Screen at 45.” -
![]()
Edmonton team allows lung patient treatment closer to home with rare surgery -
![]()
New Brunswick has found a Fredericton company responsible for recent chemical spill -
![]()
Canadian Cancer Society recommends to lower colon cancer screening age to 45
Dr. Das said the stethoscope check should be a part of all patients’ annual checkup and any health-care provider can do the check, and if there is a murmur, refer a patient to a cardiologist for further exploration.
Pratt spent two weeks in Toronto recovering before coming home. A decade later and she has a small scar, and a big change in the way she looks at her life.
She said if she hadn’t gone in for that physical, her life could look very different.
“If I hadn’t had that and heard that (something in) my heart was wrong, I could have had a totally different scenario and I might not be sitting here today,” she said.
“I know my heart is operating the way it’s supposed to and that I’ve done everything I possibly can in order to make sure that the valves are working great and that there is no risk of the future.
“I’m close to 50 now and I’m doing great. People who don’t know about my surgery have no clue at all. My scar is small, so I need to be wearing a pretty plunging neckline for you to see it.
“My heart pumps like it’s supposed to. I still have follow-up appointments every year with my cardiologist and the team tells me everything’s great.”
Keri encourages people to “be proactive rather than reactive” and get checked.
“A doctor listens to your heart with a stethoscope and they find out whether there’s something wrong with you. It’s as simple as that.”
Everytime I visit my Doctor it’s a joke. I think the profession has been intentionally dumbed down.