Dr. Sean Ryan, the president and managing partner of West Chester-based Vascular Surgical Specialists, has firsthand knowledge of what his patients are going through, writes Melissa Jacobs for Main Line Today.

Ryan, who operates out of Chester County Hospital and Paoli Hospital, was just three years old when he had to undergo complicated surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. While the doctors were able to successfully repair the coarctation of his aorta, there was nothing they could do about his bicuspid aortic valve.

Therefore, 23 years later, Ryan needed another surgery on this valve. And while the procedure has grown in leaps and bounds in recent decades, at that time it was cutting-edge.

Ryan’s doctors did an excellent job, and he was soon back at full strength. As a fourth-year student at Thomas Jefferson University’s medical school at the time, he then needed to decide his specialty.

Impressed by the work his doctors performed, he chose vascular surgery and has had a thriving career in the field ever since.

“I’ve basically lived a normal life, and that’s because I live in the United States and have access to excellent medical care,” he said.

Read more about Dr. Sean Ryan in Main Line Today here.