This was recently posted by @rosez in another discussion regarding her daughter's surgery for thymic cancer.

"I can't believe that my life has gone from bad to worse. My husband has an inoperable brain tumor and now so does my daughter. She is only 39 and has 3 1/2 year old twin girls. Her surgery was on Friday but they were unable to do anything. The tumor was rock hard and if they tried to remove it, she could possibly die. They didn't even remove her cancerous lymph nodes in her neck."

As I recall @rosez they were looking to replace a heart valve. Is this what they were not able to do?