Watch CBS News

Child Who Played Darth Vader Receives New Heart Valve

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A boy who famously started a Volkswagen sedan using the force as Darth Vader in a 2011 Super Bowl commercial has received a new heart valve and is due to have a pacemaker implanted in a few days.

The new valve, which was implanted on July 10, enables 10-year-old child actor Max Page to avoid open-heart surgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles announced Thursday. Max will have a second procedure Sept. 1, when CHLA surgeons will implant the new pacemaker.

Max suffers from a congenital heart disease and was recently diagnosed with a condition that was restricting blood flow from the right ventricle of his heart into his lungs due to a narrowing of the pulmonary valve, which had been surgically implanted in 2012.

"We had a great result; Max has a new heart valve, and we hope it will last a long time," said pediatric cardiologist Frank Ing, co-director of CHLA's Heart Institute and leader of the team that performed the three-hour procedure on July 30. "His pulmonary valve function has been restored and we avoided open-heart surgery."

On Sept. 1, Max will have a procedure at CHLA to replace his pacemaker pulse generator. The device, implanted in the abdominal wall, will keep track of his heart rhythm through electrodes sewn to the heart and stimulate the heart muscle with an electrical impulse to maintain the appropriate heart rate for whatever activity Max is doing at the time.

Cardiologists successfully implanted a Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve on July 30, and Max was discharged from the hospital the next day.

"It's just amazing to think Max can receive a new heart valve and be out of the hospital in 24 hours," said his father, Buck Page. "The last time we were here for open-heart surgery, he had a 10-inch chest scar and he was on morphine for three days. Now he is going home with a couple of Band-Aids and some Tylenol."

Born with a congenital heart defect, Max had his first surgery at age 3 months. The Melody Valve procedure was his 10th operation.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.