Simultaneous Heart and Kidney Transplant
07/11/2007
CONTACT: David Billig (914) 493 8028
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 6, 2007
SIMULTANEOUS HEART AND KIDNEY TRANSPLANT
AT WESTCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER
Surgeons at Westchester Medical Center perform uncommon combination
heart and kidney transplant on 63-year old Westchester resident
Westchester Medical Center (WMC) today announced the successful combined transplantation of a heart and kidney at the medical center. The transplant surgery, which was performed by WMC’s Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery Dr. Steven Lansman, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. David Spielvogel, M.D. and Renal Transplant Surgeon Dr. Rafik El-Sabrout, MD., was the first combined heart-kidney transplant ever performed in the Hudson Valley region.
The patient, 63-year old Paul Brand, a realtor from Tuckahoe, N.Y. was diagnosed with heart disease as a child and underwent valve replacement in 1994. He had been on the waiting list for a heart transplant for nearly 5 years and as a result of his heart’s weakened condition, recently suffered renal failure as well. When asked what he was most looking forward to in the future, Mr. Brand, who has been hospitalized on and off while waiting for the life saving surgery said, “I am looking forward to life.”
According to UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN), this is only the 22nd combined heart-kidney transplant performed in New York State since these types of procedures were approved and the first such procedure in the Hudson Valley Region.
Westchester Medical Center has the region’s only heart transplant program and is one of only a handful of hospitals in New York State that performs all areas of solid organ transplant. It is home to the region's only full-service heart program, combining a full array of cardiovascular medicine services--including general cardiology, diagnostic and invasive cardiac catheterization, outpatient diagnostics services and surgery--with cutting-edge clinical research.
Kidney failure is not uncommon in patients with heart disease and heart failure. It is often a result of high blood pressure and/or the heart’s inability to properly perfuse the kidneys.
Mr. Brand and his wife of 35 years, Mickey, addressed the media at the hospital along with Transplant Surgeons Dr. David Spielvogel, M.D., Renal Transplant Surgeon Dr. Rafik El-Sabrout, MD., Cardiologist Dr. Warren Rosenblum, MD., and Nephrologist Veronica Delaney, MD., Ph.D.
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