The Abbott valve repair device, which essentially clips the mitral valve shut, was tested in a study that company-funded researchers said showed it was roughly equivalent to surgery.
But when doctors told Mrs Whitfield, who suffers from heart defect mitral stenosis, that she was putting a strain on her heart serious enough to require an operation, she decided to take action.
The panel met to evaluate use of the novel device in patients with significant symptomatic mitral regurgitation (MR) who have been determined by a cardiac surgeon to be too high risk for open mitral valve surgery and in whom existing co-morbidities would not preclude the expected benefit from correction of the MR.