By Lynne Adkins

LANGHORNE P.A. (CBS)  –Some deathly ill heart patients are finding a new lease on life with a procedure at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne.

The procedure known as TAVR or transcutaneous aortic valve replacement is a non surgical way to open a blocked aortic valve the major blood vessel leading from the heart to the rest of the body.

Dr. George Heyrich is the director of interventional cardiology at St. Mary Medical Center.

He says it’s providing a better quality of life and longer life to patients too sick to survive open heart surgery for traditional valve replacement.

Heyrich also says “it’s allowed us to offer a new, novel treatment that was previously unavailable to these patients where they were basically sentenced to a death sentence.”

During the procedure, a catheter fitted with a stent is placed in the thigh, traveling through the body to the aortic valve, where the stent is used to open the valve and restore blood flow.