WESTCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER SURGEONS PERFORM RARE COMBINATION HEART AND LIVER TRANSPLANT
48-year old Mount Vernon resident is only the 3rd person in New York State to undergo rare simultaneous heart and liver transplant
Westchester Medical Center (WMC) today announced the successful combined transplantation of a heart and liver at the medical center on July 2nd. The unusual procedure was the first combination heart/liver transplant ever performed the Hudson Valley region. The patient and her husband will join her doctors and transplant surgeons to address the media on Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 11:15 AM at the Medical Center.
The Patient, 48-year old Shelly Guinyard, a housewife from Mount Vernon, NY—who has been unable to hear since birth and communicates through sign language—had suffered a massive heart attack in 2004, which led to a triple bypass and eventually pacemaker implantation. Unfortunately, over time, the weakened condition of her heart also caused irreversible damage to her liver. In March of this year, with both organs failing, Shelly was admitted to the Medical Center where she has remained as she waited for her transplants.
The liver performs a multitude of essential functions including metabolizing the food we eat as well as protecting the body from the damaging effects of numerous toxic compounds that we are exposed to on a daily basis. Several times each day, our entire blood supply passes through the liver and at any given time, about a pint of blood is in the liver (10% of the total blood volume of an adult).
According to UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing and the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN), this is only the 62nd combined heart-liver transplant performed in the United States and only the 3rd in the New York State as well as the first such procedure ever in the Hudson Valley Region.
WHO: Heart and liver recipient Mrs. Shelly Guinyard, Heart Transplant Surgeon Dr. David Spielvogel, M.D., Liver Transplant Surgeon Dr. Patricia Sheiner, Cardiologist Dr. Warren Rosenblum, MD., Heart and Liver transplant Coordinators, nursing staff members and members of Shelly Guinyard’s family
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WHAT: Press conference on first combined heart/liver transplant in the Hudson Valley region
WHERE: Conference Center, Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY
WHEN: Thursday, July 17, 2008 at 11:15 AM sharp
• A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER WILL BE PRESENT AT THIS EVENT
• Sign language interpretation services are available at Westchester Medical Center through the Westchester County Office for the Disabled www.westchestergov.com
