My name is Mauricio Villavicencio Theoduloz. I'm a surgeon in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. My passion and expertise lies in the field of heart and
lung transplantation, mechanical circulatory support, and high risk complex cardiac operations. I am originally from Chile, and my journey started 20 years ago receiving training in cardio thoracic
surgery in my home country, the US and Europe. But where does my passion for heart and lung transplantation come from? I hope I can transmit it to you. It's all about my patient. When I see a patient
having a heart attack, suffering from cardiogenic shock, and being able to help them doing mechanical circulatory support and then contribute them to get stronger in the ICU and furthermore bridge them to
heart transplantations and back to their daily lives, this is where my passion comes from. Or when a young cystic fibrosis patients is near death from respiratory failure, being able to connect them to ECMO,
get them up and walking around, and then performing a bilateral lung transplant, virtually eliminating their respiratory failure. This is where the passion comes from. So for most of us, breath may sound simple,
but someone out there struggles every minute of their life to do so. I will never forget a very young man that I operated from a terrible back problem with a very, very poor heart function. Their mother wrote
me a letter saying, We were told the fate of our son was to die from heart disease at a young age. Thank you for your courage, your passion, and for bringing him back to us. What else can make your
job more rewarding? That's why I consider myself so fortunate and privileged to practice my passion at the number one hospital in the world, the Mayo Clinic. Here, there's a highly dedicated team
of cardiologists, pulmonologists, surgeons, and nurses with vast experience in transplantation and complex cardiothoracic operations. All the cases are discussed daily, 24/7, 365 days of the
year during the multisciplinary transplant rounds to make sure we deliver the world best care available. I cannot express in words how proud I am to be part of this team. If you come to the mayo clinic with
NSage heart and lung disease, rest assured we will not stop searching for the best treatment for you. A transplant, mechanical succultur support or a high risk complex car operation might be recommended.
We honor the generosity of the donors, give of life with respect, compassion, teamwork, and innovation, wearing this together.