The director John Mauceri isn’t any stranger to well being struggles. It was recognized with psoriatic arthritis in 2017, then persistent lymphocytic leukemia and interstitial pulmonary illness in 2019. Medicines handled circumstances and despatched most cancers to remission, however has remained to the extent of recurrence.
In December 2024, Mauceri, then 78, employed Covid-19. He fought to climb the steps and developed a “downside” cough. He went to the emergency room of Nyu Langone, the place he beforehand acquired medical care. An radiography discovered viral pneumonia and extreme pulmonary illness. The medical doctors took three liters of liquid from their proper lung. The one reduction, he stated, was that there was no hint of most cancers. He left the hospital every week later.
In a matter of weeks, new signs emerged shortly. First, his left ankle swelled. Then the swelling continued on his leg. Because the weeks glided by, the swelling entered its stomach and lowered the precise leg. In a second, Mauceri was profitable a pound every single day. I used to be additionally coping with fatigue and lack of breath. I could not drive.
“I wore one other particular person’s physique, a minimum of from my waist down. I could not put on regular garments,” Mauceri stated. “Placing the sneakers was troublesome. I could not stroll round my home.”
John Mauceri 
Nobody in his consideration crew might determine what the signs have been inflicting.
“He had an oncologist, had a pulmonologist, a rheumatologist. He had many medical doctors and everybody thought it was one other particular person’s area,” Mauceri stated.
Searching for a analysis
Dr. Adam Skolnick, a heart specialist at Nyu Langone and one among Mauceri’s medical doctors, stated the crew first seemed for extra widespread causes for swelling. Mauceri underwent MRI and different checks. An examination discovered that its lymphatic system labored usually. Cardiac catheterization, the place a skinny tube is guided by way of the guts, didn’t discover indicators of coronary heart illness. There have been no indicators of blood clots, most cancers recurrence or different possible circumstances.
In the meantime, swelling was starting to power Mauceri’s physique, which places it susceptible to a number of failure.
Whereas learning the photographs of Mauceri’s coronary heart, Skolnick started to kind a idea. However “the one definitive means of diagnosing and treating Mr. Mauceri fully can be surgical procedure to open the chest,” stated the physician.
What’s pericardial constriction?
Skolnick thought that Mauceri might have a pericardial constriction, which happens when the bag across the coronary heart, or pericardium, thickened by scars. That forestalls the guts from getting shut. You’ll be able to create stress, leading to swelling within the legs and stomach.
It’s a uncommon situation that’s typically acquired on account of earlier illness, stated Skolnick, together with viral infections corresponding to COVID-19.
Since there isn’t any proof to investigate the pericardium particularly, Mauceri must bear open coronary heart surgical procedure to substantiate the analysis. The situation would even be handled in the identical surgical procedure. After Mauceri’s care crew eradicated all different attainable choices, they determined that it was time to go to the working room in June 2024.
Haley Ricciardi 
Mauceri was nervous concerning the perspective, but it surely appeared his solely choice.
“There was no various,” he stated. “I stated: ‘Nicely, let’s do it.'”
Excessive danger surgical procedure
Dr. Eugene Grossi, cardiotoral surgeon and chief of the Nyu Langone Coronary heart Robotic Crew, carried out the mauceri surgical procedure. When he opened the driving force’s chest, he found that Mauceri’s coronary heart was caught “inside a thick layer of scars. Typically, pericardium is sort of a paper bag. Mauceri was like sneakers, stated Grossi.
“You do not take into consideration that, however your lungs increase with every respiratory you’re taking. Your chest wall opens. Your lungs increase. The guts too, as a result of it has to just accept the blood that returns out of your arteries and veins. And his was caught,” Grossi defined. This entrapment results in fluid retention, creating swelling, stated Grossi.
Beneath therapeutic, Mauceri’s coronary heart labored properly. With the analysis made, Grossi and the surgical crew needed to scrape the pericardium and the rigorously linked scar tissue exterior the guts. Eliminating pericardium doesn’t create lasting well being issues, however the process, referred to as pericardiectomy, is delicate.
“It is virtually as if the guts have been a tough egg, and we have been taking off from the peel,” Grossi stated.
Mauceri’s process was with out issues, stated his physician. As soon as the pericardium was eliminated, the Mauceri urine output bag started to fill, demonstrating to the surgeons that the stress was off and that the blood pumped softly.
“Day by day is a miracle”
After Mauceri was discharged from the hospital, he shortly started to drop extra pounds. He stated he feels that he’s in the easiest way he has been from the college.
“That is extraordinary as a result of I not solely survived it, however I’m stronger than ever consequently,” Mauceri stated.
Their well being struggles didn’t finish instantly. Shortly after cardiac surgical procedure, he was hospitalized once more by a blockade of the small gut. That was handled shortly, once more in Nyu Langone, however decreased his restoration. It was not till December 2024, greater than a 12 months after Covid-19 was recognized, that Mauceri might perform an orchestra once more.
Mauceri carried out consecutive performances in London and Paris, getting used to being on stage once more. In Could, he traveled to Japan to drive in Tokyo. The 13 -hour flight and the lengthy days of efficiency have been felt as the primary check of their resistance after their ailments, he stated. The efficiency was a livid success.
Takayuki Shimizu 
Mauceri stated he has no plans to cut back the pace now that he has returned to work. Between spending time along with his household in New York Metropolis, he plans to journey across the nation for different concert events, even within the Hollywood Bowl in September, shortly after his 80th birthday.
“I used to be driving as if I used to be now not on the highest of being 80 years outdated,” he stated. “They allowed me to do this as a result of my medical doctors gave me this extra time in my life the place I can try this. So every single day is a miracle. Day by day I’m grateful for what they did.”