RSS Feeds

Email a Friend Printer Friendly

Heart transplant program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital celebrates anniversary

June 15, 2006

15 transplants in one year, 100 percent survival rate

CHICAGO—More than a dozen heart transplant recipients joined physicians, nurses and administrators of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Tuesday to celebrate the first anniversary of the re-launch of the Institute's heart transplant program. The event was a chance for hospital staff to celebrate the hard work that has resulted in 15 heart transplants in one year — with a 100 percent survival rate — and to re-connect with patients and their families.

The heart transplant team presented a gift to each patient, including the ninth-heart transplant recipient, Edward Razo. Mr. Razo, an ironworker, had helped build the Feinberg and Galter pavilions of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, and recently worked on the new Prentice Women's Hospital due to open in fall 2007.

"Even though I knew that a heart transplant was potentially in the cards for me, I was still shocked when, at 41 years old, I was told that a heart transplant was now my only option," said Mr. Razo. "Although the experience of the heart transplant was challenging, the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute's heart transplant team answered all of my questions and met all of my needs."

Remarks were made by John B. O'Connell, M.D., director of the Bluhm Institute's Center for Heart Failure, and William Cotts, M.D., and Edwin McGee, Jr., M.D., the medical and surgical directors respectively for the advanced heart failure program.

"I am very proud of the program that we have established at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute's Center for Heart Failure," said Dr. O'Connell. "Heart failure and heart transplant patients benefit from the Center's multidisciplinary team of physicians, psychologists, social workers, dietitians and nurses. Physicians collaborate on cases and bring their full range of expertise to treatment decisions."

The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute's first heart transplant patient, Diane Bik, received her heart on June 7, 2005. A native Chicagoan, she had been prepared to go to Ohio when she heard she would be placed on Northwestern Memorial Hospital's transplant waiting list. "We were ready to go to the Cleveland Clinic for the heart transplant, but instead the Cleveland Clinic came to us," said her husband.

Patrick McCarthy, M.D., co-director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute and chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Northwestern Memorial, came from The Cleveland Clinic, where he led a program performing approximately 75 heart transplants per year and boasting the world's lowest mortality rates (80 percent survival at five years). Dr. McGee also came from The Cleveland Clinic.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital