BRIEF: People: Darth Vader Super Bowl commercial's young star getting heart surgery 

BRIEF: People: Darth Vader Super Bowl commercial's young star getting heart surgery

Jun 13, 2012 (Menafn - Contra Costa Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --The kid who charmed millions of TV viewers in the Darth Vader-themed Super Bowl commercial for Volkswagen will get open-heart surgery on June 14.

People.com reports that the operation will be the eighth surgery for Max Page, 7, who was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect when he was 3 months old.

"He's scared and he's nervous" about the procedure, Max's father, Buck Page, said in an interview with the "Today" show's Ann Curry.

Dr. Vaughn Starnes, the cardiothoracic surgeon who will perform the operation at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, said in a statement to People.com that Max Page needs a new pulmonary valve in his heart. Previous

operations have tried to save the existing valve but have been unsuccessful. "He needs a new valve and that's the planned operation," Starnes said.

In a 2011 Super Bowl ad for the Volkswagen Passat, Page, decked in a Darth Vader costumes, tried to use The Force to start his father's car. He has also appeared in "The Young and the Restless" and "Prime Suspect."

Buck Page told "Today": "Max has not known how good he can feel. So this is going to enable him to become even more active, which is hard to believe."

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