There is no greater gift than health. That is something a Hamden man is taking to heart this holiday season, after Steve Bevins went from the operating table to the hockey rink in one year.
“This is Sunday pickup hockey, I think you I would call it. It's run by these great guys. It's Sunday Sauce Hockey!” Bevins, Hamden said.
On weekends, Bevins spends his time at Ralph Walker Rink in New Haven playing in a men’s league.
“I’ve actually been playing hockey most of my life, since I was about four years old,” Bevins said.
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From a mite to the men’s league, and even playing competitively at Hamden High School, hockey has always been in Bevins’ heart, even though his heart has always been delicate.
“I was diagnosed with a murmur when I was probably in middle school, 12-years-old or so. And the doctors monitored it and kept track of it,” Bevins said.
About ten years ago, the sound of the murmur began to change, and doctors diagnosed Bevins with aortic stenosis, meaning is aortic valve was narrowing.
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Then, after becoming winded during a men’s league game last year, his care team decided it was time to take action.
“It was starting to close up. So it was time to do the surgery,” Bevins said. “I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't scared.”
That is when he met Dr. Sabet Hashim at Hartford Hospital.
“He's a very active person, and the aortic stenosis was impeding the quality of his life. He was not happy the way things were going. And he knew also that things will get worse in time,” Dr. Hashim, Cardiac Surgery Chairman and Co-Physician in Chief of the Hartford HealthCare Heart & Vascular Institute, said.
After discussing all options, last October Dr. Hashim performed an open-heart procedure to replace Bevins’ aortic valve with a mechanical valve.
The procedure was done shortly before Hartford Hospital was recognized nationally by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons with a perfect score in adult cardiac surgery, including aortic valve replacement. The hospital was one of two in the nation to get such a high ranking.
However, for the doctor, the reward is in a successful operation.
“At age 60, I think he is now getting to play hockey; it’s something to be very proud of. And clearly, that is what makes him happy,” Dr. Hasim said.
A gamechanger.
Although the high school business teacher walked out of Hartford Hospital just three days after surgery, the 60-year-old waited a year to gear up and get back on the ice.
“It's completely transformed my future. I can play hockey again. I can take hikes, I can go for bike rides,” Bevins said. “I feel fantastic. I feel so good, I'm playing hockey!
Bevins, proving he won’t go throughout life without goals.
