Mayo Clinic in Arizona completes 50th heart transplant procedure

Thursday, July 31, 2008

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mayo Clinic in Arizona has completed
50 heart transplants since the program opened in
September 2005, a significant milestone not only for Mayo, but for Maricopa County. Previously, patients had to travel outside of the greater Phoenix area for a heart transplant.

The first heart transplant surgery at Mayo was performed
by Dr. Francisco Arabia, director of the Heart Transplant Program, who joined Mayo in 2005 after coming from University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz. Also joining Mayo in 2005 was Dr. Robert Scott, medical director, Heart Transplant Program, who most recently was medical director of Heart Transplantation at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans. Joining the heart team as well was Dr. Eric Steidley, Mayo Clinic transplant cardiologist.

That first patient, a 60-year-old Scottsdale woman, had experienced sudden heart failure following a swimming outing with friends and underwent her heart transplant on Oct. 19, 2005, less than one month after Mayo received approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

The first patient had been outfitted with two ventricular devices to keep her ailing heart functioning until a donor heart became available. Today she has regained her energy and is active by participating in support groups to reach out to other heart transplant patients.

The 50th heart transplant patient is a 53-year-old mother of three from New Mexico. She is a former marathon bicyclist who gradually weakened because of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. Her surgery, on July 20, 2008, was performed by Drs. Patrick DeValeria and Louis Lanza, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Mayo Clinic.

Other significant milestones were acknowledged along the way to the 50th milestone. In August 2007, a 56-year-old Gilbert woman became the Valley's first patient to be implanted with an artificial heart, a mechanical device powered by an external power source that pumped blood for her, since her own, failing heart had been removed.

Thirteen days later, the patient, an enthusiastic grandmother, received a donor heart and is doing well today.

Since that first procedure, because of their serious conditions, four other patients qualified to receive the artificial heart. All five patients went on to receive a donor heart. Two other patients are currently connected to an artificial heart and are awaiting suitable donor hearts.

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Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. As a leading academic medical center in the Southwest, Mayo Clinic focuses on providing specialty and surgical care in more than 65 disciplines at its outpatient facility in north Scottsdale and at Mayo Clinic Hospital. The 244-licensed bed hospital is located at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard (north of Bell Road) in northeast Phoenix, and provides inpatient care to support the medical and surgical specialties of the clinic, which is located at 134th Street and Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale.

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