MINEOLA, New York (WABC) — A man from Long Island known for spreading holiday cheer, dressing as Santa Claus, received a very special gift this Christmas after surviving a near-fatal health scare. That gift — a second chance at life.
Larry Burke returned to NYU Langone Hospital in Mineola on Wednesday, where he’s been delivering toys to sick kids for the last five years. But this year, Burke was unsure if he would be able to carry out his holiday duties.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever do this again. The way I was feeling, I was so exhausted, so tired,” Burke said. “I love to garden. I had to hire someone to plant my flowers this year.”
The look-alike Santa, whose second residence is in Levittown, was feeling out of breath. His wife Katherine was getting concerned, as Burke had an important job at the hospital in spreading joy.
“And the fact that he probably wasn’t going to be able to do that this year really had him down,” she said.
Burke actually had open heart surgery 12 years ago to replace a leaky valve.
“They had to crack my chest. I was in the hospital forever, it took forever to recover,” Burke said.
The neighborhood Santa feared he needed the operation again, but instead doctors performed a less invasive procedure called TAVR, or transcatheter aortic valve replacement. The procedure was all done through his groin, with an artificial valve threaded to the aorta in about 45 minutes.
The good news is that with the TAVR procedure is that Burke didn’t even need to be put to sleep. It’s minimal sedation, and Burke was back to “sleighing it” in about 24 hours.
“And we have results now, that these are comparable to with open heart surgery. So the results are similar, long term results,” said Dr. Darko Boljevic, an NYU Langone surgeon.
As a result, Burke is back to his regularly scheduled programming as Santa, with an even greater sense of gratitude.
“You get more empathy for the kids. I hate to see sick kids, and seeing them smile really does my heart well,” Burke said.
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