NEWARK, NJ- Newark Beth Israel
Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of
New Jersey, affiliates of the Saint Barnabas Health
Care System, were recently certified by the US
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services to perform pediatric
heart transplantation. The recent certification
ensures that young adults and teens in New Jersey
have access to the same extraordinary level of
care for complex heart problems that adults receive.
“Approval to add pediatric heart transplantation
to the scope of care available at Newark Beth Israel
Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of
New Jersey offers youngsters the ultimate treatment
for heart disease,” says Paul Mertz, Executive
Director, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and
Children’s Hospital of New Jersey. “Young
adults and their families no longer have to endure
the additional stress of traveling out of state
for heart transplantation.”
The Saint Barnabas Heart Center at Newark Beth
Israel Medical Center is New Jersey’s largest
and most experienced adult heart transplant center
and ranks seventh in the nation by volume. As an
outgrowth of the adult program, the new pediatric
transplant service benefits from the two decades
of experience, research and expertise that make
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center’s adult
heart transplant program among the finest in the
nation.
“By combining the expertise of the adult
heart transplant team with the commitment and enthusiasm
of the pediatric cardiologists and pediatric cardiac
surgeons at our Children’s Heart Center,
we are able to offer heart transplantation to increasingly
younger patients,” explains Mark J. Zucker,
M.D., J.D., Director of the Heart Failure Treatment
and Transplantation Program at Newark Beth Israel
Medical Center. In November 2006, the combined
team performed a successful heart transplant on
a 15-year-old young man -- New Jersey’s youngest
heart transplant recipient.
“No other pediatric cardiac program in
the state offers as many critical resources solely
devoted to the treatment of children with heart
disease,” states Joel Hardin, M.D., Director
of Cardiology at Children’s Hospital of New
Jersey. “Children born with heart defects
often require multiple surgical or interventional
procedures over their lifetime,” adds Joanne
Starr, M.D., Director of Cardiac Surgery at Children’s
Hospital of New Jersey. “Many ultimately
need a heart transplant to survive.”
The Children’s Heart Center consist of nationally
and internationally respected pediatric cardiologists
and cardiothoracic surgeons, as well as experienced
cardiac intensivists, cardiothoracic anesthesiologists,
clinical nurse specialists, social workers and
child life specialists. The entire team is based
at the Children’s Heart Center and is available
24 hours a day. The coordinated pediatric transport
service brings children from across the state to
Children’s Hospital for the most sophisticated
care.
Over the last decade, the Children’s Heart
Center has performed more pediatric cardiac surgery
and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures – often
involving extremely complex malformations - than
any other hospital in New Jersey. Recently the
Center’s cardiologists and surgeons successfully
performed New Jersey’s first hybrid transcatheter
and surgical repair of a complex congenital heart
defect in a newborn baby under beating heart conditions.
The interventional cardiology team has more than
20 years experience in New Jersey’s largest
single center for catheter-based treatment of complex
congenital heart disease – in children and adults.
In its dedicated Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization
Laboratory, cardiologists have succeeded in treating
an increasingly complex patient mix with zero mortality
over the last six years. The Center’s
electrophysiology capabilities have recently been
expanded to include cryoablation procedures, currently
available only at the nation’s most progressive
pediatric cardiac centers.
The cardiologists of the Children’s Heart
Center are expert in applying the entire spectrum
of state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities including
3-D echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography,
stress echocardiography, fetal echocardiography,
and cardiac MRI.
With a balance of expertise, technology, and a
passion for excellence, the team at the Children’s
Heart Center is second to none, and right at home
in New Jersey.
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