�Seven years after Joaquin Lucio's kidneys shut down, he had a heart attack and was taken to a Los Angeles area hospital where doctors performed an angioplasty to clear his coronary arteries. He besides was suffering from idiopathic congestive centre failure - a condition in which the nerve becomes weak and enlarged - and a special pacemaker was implanted to provide support.
But his heart continued to betray, and the Culver City resident was quickly transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
"He had end-stage affectionateness failure and was at the brink of death when he arrived. Output from his heart could not be maintained even though he was receiving maximum intravenous medications in the ICU," said cardiothoracic surgeon Sinan Simsir, M.D., who false a leadership role a year ago with the Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device Program at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.
Lucio, 41, needed a new spirit and kidney, but with potential recipients outnumbering donations, the organs would non be useable in meter. To keep him alive, Simsir deep-rooted a HeartMate XVE left ventricular assist device (LVAD) on Dec. 1, 2007. An LVAD takes o'er the function of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber.
"We had to implant the device in an emergency brake operation. He was then able to go base to wait for a donor spunk and kidney to become available," Simsir said.
The HeartMate XVE can part as a bridge to transplant, as was the case with Lucio, or it can be used as "terminus therapy," supporting the ticker indefinitely.
Lucio was one of the fortunate few for whom organs became available preferably rather than later. On Saturday night, Jan. 5, he standard a hollo from a heart transplant coordinator at Cedars-Sinai wHO said a donor pump and kidney were organism evaluated. A few hours later, a second call came: The organs were in salutary condition, and surgery was scheduled for Sunday at noon.
"I was frightened and well-chosen and surprised at the same time," Lucio aforementioned. He and his wife, Yolanda, got to the hospital early in the morning. He was readied for operating room and they waited apprehensively for bad weather to clear and a eggbeater to get with the organs.
The two-stage mathematical process got underway at about 3:30 p.m., with the heart transplant team headed by Simsir and the kidney team led by J. Louis Cohen, M.D., surgical film director of Kidney Transplantation. Both organs functioned well, and Lucio was on his feet for short walks the following day.
The father of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, Lucio worked 17 years in golf stores, repairing and maintaining clubs and other equipment. He continued working after his kidneys failed, even spell undergoing nightly dialysis. After his heart attack and the onslaught of heart failure, he was no longer able to figure out and began receiving disablement payments.
"He is a young guy with a great category. Without the transplants, he would non have the quality of life that he now can require. And without the pump, he would not have survived at all," said Simsir. "Our staff and transplant coordinators make every effort to help conclude financial, insurance and backing issues, and it's very rewarding for us to see that patients receive the medical care they need."
In 2007, Simsir and his colleagues performed 43 heart transplants, up from 25 the year before, making Cedars-Sinai one of the top 10 heart programs in the nation. The medical center's lung transplants rose from 11 in 2006 to 26 in 2007, placing the lung program in the top 20 nationally. And with 19 pump procedures performed last year, Cedars-Sinai is among the leading LVAD centers.
Cedars-Sinai's kidney transplant program is among the nation's leaders, having performed about one hundred forty transplants last year. Under the medical leadership of Stanley Jordan, M.D., the program has protocols available to patients thought not transplantable, allowing them to undergo successful kidney graft.
Lucio is slowly rebuilding his staying power and planning to eventually go back to work. For at present, he is enjoying spending time with his crime syndicate and pickings the kids to the mall, to church, or sometimes pickings them extinct for pizza.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
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