5 Open heart suregery!!!

My father is 60 years old and just survived his 5th open heart surgery.  Shortly after he was born he got meningitis which led to rheumatic fever that left his aeortic and mitral valve damaged.  When he was 16yrs old he had his first open heart surgery to repair his mitral valve (I think) it was either or both his mitral and aeortic valve.  .  During this surgery he was basically put on ice until his heart stopped and it was repaired and restarted.  His odds of survival during this surgery were 50/50.

He then went on to marry my mother and have three children, I'm the youngest at 29yrs old.  His life expectancy was at best 25yrs old.  He is a retired coal miner and had several opportunities over his career to get a sick retirement but refused as he had us to look after.  At 55 he retired with a regular retirement.  He only spent a few years underground, maybe 8 or so then he was put in the shops as a manager.  Dr. Chandler told several people that they were not worthy of a sick retirement and used the fact that Dad would never give up to explain his conclusions.

When I was three years old Dad had his second surgery to repair the mitral valve and possibly the aeortic valve.. not totally sure, but I can get his medical records sent if that is possible through you.  This surgery went off without any complications until about 12 hours after the surgery when he started to hemorrhage and required his third open heart surgery to repair the damage.  This surgery was also successful.

He just recently told me of a story where he was in the pit and everyday he had to come up and sit on a bench holding his chest because the warmth from his hand would help with the pain.  Then after vomiting several times he would make it to the car and come home.  He never complained and only told this story 2 months ago, I told mom during his latest surgery and she didn't know.  

11 years ago he had his mitral valve replaced and for the first time in his life he had no pain.  He lived a good 10 years and even travelled out west last year 2009 to work in the oil field.  In between he had a stroke and a heart attack.  The heart attach actually happened after the open heart repair he had when I was three, oops.  One day he was on his way to work  underground and my mom noticed he wasn't himself and she called the company nurse and told her the symptoms.  She met him at the gate and he was having a heart attach.  He did survive!!  As always he is a trooper.  

The stroke happened after his mitral valve replacement and was a product of his medication.  His blood was to thick and he had a stroke.  I found him; and I actually didn't believe what he was saying because he is notorious for not telling us what he is feeling; he always try's to protect us from his pain.  So I found him in my basement and he was twirling his finger in the air and I didn't believe it because he would never give up the real!!

I thought it was his heart and I made it clear, that was what I thought. But I was wrong and it wasn't dads heart, it was neurological... The neurologist was so kind and he told us to go home and be thankful that my father is going to be just fine.  He has two visible symptoms of this and they are; his handwriting is worse, he is a lefty so it was already bad and he slightly drags his leg.

PRIOR TO THE LAST SURGERY... REPLACEMENT OF AEORTIC VALVE  Dad.s breathing started to hinder him to the point that he would wake up gasping for air.  So his surgeon told him that he needed the aeortic valve replaced.  He said that if he didn't have this operation he would live maybe 3 years and all the time going down hill with being immobile in the next year.  Dad would never live that way so he decided to have the aeortic valve replaced.

So now he had this valve replaced with a mechanical valve on January 7th, 2010 and the surgery was supposed to last 12 hrs, Dr. was out of there is 5hrs; things went as good as they could go.  He told me earlier that his previous surgeon, now retired, thinks of my dad as his project.  With that in mind, Dr. Sullivan who apprenticed under Murphy asked Murphy to join and observe.  He declined as he felt that Sullivan needed no distractions.

Dr. Sullivan told our family that Dr. Murphy literally carved my fathers heart out of the the scar tissue when he was replacing the mitral valve, replaced the valve and carved himself back out.

So with that info I have two questions:

1.My father could not even take two light grocery bags in my home without having to sit down because he could not breath....  It has been two full months like 10 weeks..  Will this get better.2
2.With 100% success of this operation and the others, how many years does he have to enjoy
how long will he live at max.