Contact: Robert McLaughlin, 312-971-9220

ST. CHARLES, Ill., Dec. 6, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- In 2017, Bill and Lynn Knotts of St. Charles, Illinois, spent their wedding anniversary in St. Charles, Illinois, but it was not until their next wedding anniversary in 2018, that Lynn says was the most special. They spent that anniversary in the hospital. Bill had been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse in 2014–a leaking mitral valve. He underwent his first cardiac surgery in 2014. After that surgery, Bill was still having symptoms over the next four years requiring him to have a second heart surgery in June of this year. Bill learned he would have to fight against the cruelest opponent – a second open heart surgery – to repair the results from the first surgery. After the second open heart surgery on June 1, 2018, and after fighting the the hardest fight of his life for 174 days, he passed away on Thanksgiving Day while surrounded by family and loved ones.

Unfortunately, during the last few months of his life, the family learned that Bill was not the only one to develop complications after open heart surgery to repair the mitral valve. Searching for the mysterious connection linking these separate cases, the family met other victims in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, North of Milwaukee, who had similar complications from the same open heart surgery technique performed by the same surgeon at the same hospital. Congressman Glenn Grothman, WI, has investigated on behalf of the constituents in WI, but with no response from the last FDA inquiry sent in 2017.

At Bill Knotts' home in St Charles, IL, on December 6, 2018 at 12:30 p.m. the family of Bill Knotts' will hold a press conference to discuss the events of the past four years. The press have reported stories on this subject for over ten years, including the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Associate Press, WGN, NBC, WHBL, and Fox32. The Knotts family hopes that the public disclosure and dissemination of newly discovered evidence connecting all of the victims and injuries to a common link, will protect other citizens in the Chicagoland area and in the surrounding states from IL, IA, IN WI and beyond, from succumbing to a similar avoidable fate, one which until this time has gone unexplained until the death of each victim.

Press Conference December 6, 2018 at 12:30 pm at 14 Stonewood Dr. St Charles, IL 60174.