Scott & White’s Advanced Heart Failure Clinic includes the expertise of a multidisciplinary team, including (left to right):
Enrique Gongora, MD, VAD clinical nurse specialist Sherry Alvarado, CNS, W. Roy Smythe, MD, Allan Anderson, MD, Robert C. Scott III,
MD, Philip Houck, MD, and Nandini Nair, MD.
program,” Dr. Smythe says. “That’s the
need in this part of the state.”
Dr. Gongora says, “Thirty percent of
the hearts that are recovered in Texas are
exported somewhere else. There’s a need
for the Scott & White community to have
this therapy here.”
In addition to heart surgeons and
cardiologists, Scott & White assembled
a multidisciplinary team of nurses,
anesthesiologists, pharmacists, nutritionists,
social workers, and other support staff with
experience in treating transplant patients. A
large team of such skilled caregivers is
necessary because the transplant surgery
itself is only part of the patient’s therapy.
The patient must stay in the hospital for
two weeks after the surgery. All the while,
the center’s team monitors the patient to
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THE CATALYST Winter 11 | www.sw.org
ensure that the new heart remains strong
and the patient’s body does not reject it.
After heart transplant patients leave the
hospital, the Scott & White team will
continue to follow up on their progress and
encourage them to adhere to guidelines to
remain healthy. Patients must take antirejection drugs for the rest of their lives. “A
“Most patients with
heart failure don’t need
a heart transplant.”
—Dr. W. Roy Smythe
heart transplant is a commitment,” says
Dr. Gongora. “It’s a commitment not only
from the medical community, but also
from the patient.”
A new heart will do more than cure
the patient, Dr. Gongora says. “Heart
transplantation really changes people’s lives.
They can run a half marathon, when before
they were unable to get up and walk to their
bathroom without getting short of breath.”
A high purpose
Dr. Smythe believes that the “ripple effect”
of bringing heart transplantation to Scott
& White will enhance the hospital’s
educational and research missions. “We
will have a different set of patients from
which our residents, students, and fellows
can learn,” he says. Ron Holder,