{"id":619724,"date":"2026-02-27T10:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619724\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:47:24","slug":"news4jax-anchor-scott-johnson-shares-how-a-shocking-discovery-at-his-physical-led-to-life-saving-robotic-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619724\/","title":{"rendered":"News4JAX anchor Scott Johnson shares how a shocking discovery at his physical led to life\u2011saving robotic surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A funny thing happens when you hit middle-age, mentally you still feel in your 20s. Sometimes the body doesn\u2019t always agree.<\/p>\n

That was essentially my case the last few years, as I felt I could skip that annual physical. I mean, I\u2019m still in my 20s. Well, 40s. Maybe the physical isn\u2019t a bad idea.<\/p>\n

So, last February, sitting there during my physical at the doctor\u2019s office in Mandarin, he pulled out the stethoscope. It\u2019s the easiest part of the physical; I was sure there would be no problem. Well, that supposition was wrong.<\/p>\n

The doctor told me he heard a \u201cmurmur\u201d. This was a first. I still couldn\u2019t get past the mental gymnastics I was doing to remind myself I was young. Reality reminded me… \u201cYou\u2019re not as young as you thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I started getting more tests. When I had the echocardiogram, that\u2019s when they found something. My mitral valve was leaking. That\u2019s when a cardiologist sat me down to let me know that if this was left untreated, the blood could back up into my lungs and I could die.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>\u2018Fighting Cancer on My Terms\u2019: Bruce Hamilton shares cancer journey to inspire hope, resilience<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

If you were watching the news last February and thought Scott looked a little pale… well, there you go.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we ran more tests, and I met with a surgeon. The results weren\u2019t great, but they weren\u2019t awful, relatively speaking. I was told my problem was totally fixable. That was the good news. <\/p>\n

The not-so-good news was that I was going to need open heart surgery to either repair (best case scenario) the valve or replace it.<\/p>\n

I could either have a mechanical valve put in and likely be on blood thinners the rest of my life, or I could have what they call an \u201canimal valve,\u201d which may be better. But I could feasibly need another surgery in my 60s or 70s.<\/p>\n

The day I was scheduling that surgery, I decided on a long shot, in the Channel 4 newsroom. I talked to Bruce Hamilton. I know Bruce had some similar issues many years ago. Bruce sent me to see his cardiologist, Dr. Majdi Aschi, over on University Blvd.<\/p>\n

I assumed Aschi would just reiterate what I had already been told. I was wrong. He threw me a curveball and told me, \u201cYou need to go to Emory\u201d. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know what that was. Turns out he was talking about Emory St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital in Atlanta. I discovered they do more mitral valve repairs using robotics than anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

So I took a day and drove myself to Atlanta, Georgia. That\u2019s where I met with Dr. Douglas Murphy. We sat down, and most importantly, he said he could fix me with robots. That meant, no open heart surgery, a quicker recovery, and most importantly, I would likely not need any other surgeries.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would be working in the yard or playing pickleball or swinging a golf club in 90 days,\u201d Murphy told me of the recovery for open heart surgery. Then he described the benefits of robotics. \u201cIf you have it robotically, you\u2019re back at work in three weeks, and you\u2019re out in the yard, but the recovery is the same; it\u2019s just faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he told me the complication rate was extremely low. He also told me (estimating) that going to get my annual physical and detecting this may have added ten to 15 years to the end of my life. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s because I didn\u2019t know I had a problem. I was asymptomatic. But at some point over the next several years, I was told that would likely change. Without surgery.<\/p>\n

So, I dropped everything and planned my surgery in Atlanta on Oct. 1. These tiny robots were able to use my own heart tissue to repair the valve, and I wouldn\u2019t require an artificial valve.<\/p>\n

When I got there, all the prep went as you might expect, and the anesthesiologist put me out. I was unconscious for about six hours and then woke up.<\/p>\n

Unlike the full open-heart surgery, I didn\u2019t have a huge scar down the center of my chest. Rather, there were two much smaller wounds near my right shoulder. Turns out the surgery was successful. My valve was fixed, and I\u2019ll live a full life.<\/p>\n

The two surgical wounds remain today and continue to heal. I don\u2019t even notice them anymore, and they\u2019ll eventually be gone.<\/p>\n

The funny part of this story came a few days after I was released from the hospital. They had me stay at an Atlanta hotel for a few days before a follow-up, and they sent me home.<\/p>\n

That happened the week the Jaguars were playing Monday Night Football. I had to watch the game in the hotel lobby. If you\u2019re not familiar, the show \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d was filmed in the Atlanta area. Well, I looked like one of their zombies. I was better, but you don\u2019t look your best after heart surgery. While everyone in the lobby stared in disbelief as I sat down, I cheered the Jags as best I could. And, we won!<\/p>\n

I want to close by just writing that this was my experience. Every heart issue is unique, and you need to speak with your medical team. In fact, I spoke with multiple cardiologists who all told me a cardiac surgeon needs to determine if robotics works for you. They can\u2019t know without major testing.<\/p>\n

The outlook is good going forward. I\u2019ve had two precautionary echocardiograms since, and both came back perfectly. I\u2019ll have an annual one and have to take one baby aspirin a day for the rest of my life. That\u2019s all. No other meds. In my opinion, not that bad considering the alternative.<\/p>\n

And now, I won\u2019t be taking those annual physicals for granted ever again. See you on the news…<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A funny thing happens when you hit middle-age, mentally you still feel in your 20s.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":619725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,216646,265314,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-619724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-heart-surgery","tag-scott-johnson","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116142200995083087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}