HELP! Need advice on prosthetic valve endocarditis

[roxdavis]

My mom is in the hospital with PVE. She had open heart surgery (quad bypass) and a valve replacement 3 months ago and now has a strep B infection in her blood. They started her on Vancomycin, then took her off and put her on Rocephin (she is allergic to penicillin but doing ok on the derivative). They have done an echocardiogram which revealed that the prosthetic valve and the mitral valve are leaking.

She had a fever when initally admitted, then it went away and now it was back today. As a result, they have added Vancomycin back again to the Rocephin and are getting a preliminary culture result back tomorrow.

They have suggested doing a transesophageal echo, but haven't pushed her too much because she is afraid of the test. We have been getting conlicting info from the 3 docs assigned to her and are not comfortable with what is happening so far. Is there anything else they should be doing? Can anyone recommend a good doctor for this problem in North Jersey? What kind of prognosis are we talking about...is there any hope???

Thanks for any advice...I don't know where to turn.