Here are some Cardiac Patient Stories from the Saint Barnabas Health
Care System.
Roger, of Passaic, NJ, was diagnosed with
congestive heart failure (CHF) at age 32. His two
brothers died at young age from heart disease and
Mr. Thomas fought hard against a similar fate.
Yet, at age 54 he was admitted to the Heart Failure
Treatment and Transplant Program at the Saint Barnabas
Heart Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
with Class IV heart failure. His cardiac output
was declining, his pulmonary pressures climbing
and his symptoms of heart failure worsening. Shortly
after admission and prior to the identification
of a donor heart, his arrhythmias worsened. A
few years ago Mr. Thomas would have been among
the hundreds of people who die each year waiting
for a heart transplant.
Today, the country’s most advanced cardiac
centers offer the latest generation of mechanical
assist devices which provide patients like Mr.
Thomas a reliable bridge to transplantation. Days
after he consented to participate in one of the
Heart Center’s Left Ventricular Assist Device
(LVAD) clinical research trials and underwent device
implantation, a donor heart was found and a successful
transplant performed. Mr. Thomas continues
to get stronger everyday and says of Mark J. Zucker
M.D., J.D.; Margarita Camacho, M.D.; and the entire
transplant team. “Wealth can’t buy
what they gave me. They saved my life.”
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