Memorial Cardiac & Vascular Institute Performs Broward’s First Adult Heart Transplant
(Hollywood, Fla.) Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute at Memorial Regional Hospital made history this week by performing the first ever, adult heart transplant in Broward County. The hospital received UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) approval to launch the adult heart transplant program earlier this year, becoming one of only two programs in South Florida.
The skilled cardiac transplant team is led by Dr. Enrique Gongora, Medical Director of the Adult Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Program at the Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute and Dr. Ioana Dumitru, Medical Director of Adult Cardiac Transplant, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy. Both work with a high-caliber team of dedicated nurses, intensivists, perfusionists, and laboratory medicine experts, who were all on cue for the life-saving transplant.
“We are very excited for our first heart transplant patient,” said Dr. Dumitru, a board-certified heart failure and transplant cardiologist. “The 51-year-old patient who received the life-saving transplant had end-stage heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy. We had been following her since this Spring.”
The team is preparing for the next adult heart transplants, given they currently have six patients waiting for this miraculous gift of life.
