As part of a routine physical Tom requested a 'stress test', which revealed a congenital defect in his aortic valve... there is a suspicion his mother had the same defect. After reviewing the options, he pro-actively elected to have surgery to correct the problem. He had a scheduled heart valve replacement on Monday that went well. His biggest complaint was the surgery was scheduled for 8AM and they didn't take him down to surgery until 3PM and he wasn't back in the room until 8PM.

This is major surgery, but there was NO dramatic 'rush to hospital'. Pre-op, his doctor predicted he could to return to full activity and diving in two months. However, Tom is otherwise in extremely good health; post-op he is doing exceptionally well and I suspect he will beat the prediction.

This information was provided to me last week via e-mail from Tom himself and later via telephone conversation with Patti Mount, his wife, on Tuesday afternoon. Today I spoke with Dr Peri Blum, a consulting MD on his case and also a technical diver, who confirmed again that Tom is doing very well.

-- Mark Derrick