From Fort Lauderdale to Tavares for a groundbreaking heart surgery

When Alex Frost noticed he was getting winded after short jogs, he knew something was wrong.

The 54-year-old business executive and half-marathon runner from Fort Lauderdale had always prided himself on endurance. At a trade show in Chicago, a single lap of the exhibit hall left him gasping, and he realized the problem was serious.

Doctors soon found out why: two of Frost’s main coronary arteries were dangerously narrowed – a condition known as two-vessel coronary artery stenosis. Without surgery, his heart could fail at any time.

“I never imagined my heart would be the thing to slow me down, but I couldn’t outrun this,” said Frost. “The doctors told me I was a very high-risk patient, and if surgery did not happen, it could be as little as two weeks or it could be as long as two years before my heart would give out.”

Rather than settle for a traditional open-heart procedure and a long recovery, Frost searched online for a better way and found it 250 miles away at AdventHealth Waterman in Tavares. There, board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Gary Allen offered a highly advanced alternative: robotic bypass surgery using both of Frost’s mammary arteries.

The procedure, called a bilateral internal mammary artery minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (BIMA MIDCAB), was the first of its kind at AdventHealth Waterman. Allen used the da Vinci robotic system to bypass Frost’s blocked arteries without opening his chest.

“Only about 5% of hospitals have the expertise and technology to do this type of surgery robotically,” said Allen. “This makes the procedure at AdventHealth Waterman quite special and advanced.”

Just three days after surgery, Frost returned home. Within a week, he was cleared to resume his active lifestyle.

“I came here to fix my heart, but I also got my life back, without the long hospital stay or a scar down my chest,” added Frost. “I’m so, so glad we chose this route. Traditional open-heart surgery comes with so many potential complications. It was worth every mile of the drive.”

Three months after surgery, he is jogging up to two miles and playing slow-paced soccer games with friends.

For AdventHealth Waterman, the procedure marked a milestone in expanding access to robotic heart surgery, offering patients like Frost a faster, less invasive way back to life.

“Alex’s story is a powerful example of how far cardiovascular surgery has come,” said Allen. “Alex could’ve gone anywhere, but he came here because we had the skill, the tools and the heart to do it right.”