Methodist Heart Hospital Patient Part of Growing Number of Re-Transplants
WHAT:
Lee Dunfee, 58, is celebrating his second chance at life. He is one of a growing number of patients who have had a re-transplant—a second heart transplant. Though the number is growing as patients live longer, it is still small. From 2005 to 2008, only about three percent of heart transplant procedures were re-transplants. Heart disease runs in Dunfee’s family. His sister died unexpectedly at age 15 from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart muscle becomes thick. This thickening makes it harder for blood to leave the heart, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. Dunfee began having problems in his early 30s. He experienced cardiac arrest and was very close to death when he had his first transplant in 1993 in Pennsylvania. He and his wife moved to San Antonio in 2004. In July 2009 he began having problems with cholesterol build-up and rejection issues. He had his second transplant at Methodist Heart Hospital in August 2009.
On Friday, Michael Kwan, M.D., the cardiologist who performed the procedure, will speak at the monthly Mall Walkers meeting about heart disease. After a brief presentation on heart disease, he will lead attendees in an alcohol-free champagne toast to celebrate Dunfee’s successful recovery.
Methodist Heart Hospital offers the largest heart transplant program in South Texas. Surgeons there have performed more than 300 heart transplants to date. The Texas Transplant Institute, which includes the heart transplant program at Methodist Heart Hospital, has one of the highest one-year survival rates among heart transplant centers in Central and South Texas. The Texas Transplant Institute’s Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Clinic not only manages the largest number of post-transplant patients in San Antonio, but also has the largest selection of Ventricular Assist Devices in the city. The majority of patients followed, however, are those with end-stage heart failure who are not surgical candidates. Staffed by full-time transplant cardiologists and former intensive care unit nurses, the staff is bilingual and has expertise in home IV medications, pulmonary hypertension, and disease management, in addition to cardiac transplantation and heart failure.
WHEN:
Friday, February 12 at 9 a.m.
WHERE:
Wonderland of the Americas Mall
4522 Fredericksburg Road
upper level of the mall, follow the signs.
A toast to life. Dr. Kwan will lead Dunfee and his wife, Sue, in a toast to life using non-alcoholic champagne. Individuals attending the seminar will join in the celebration. Encouragement for others. Dunfee says that he is “so blessed to have been given the opportunity for a second transplant” and he can comment on the difference that the transplants have made in his life. Mall Walkers. Members of the Methodist Healthcare 55PLUS® Mall Walkers will take a few laps around the mall to show how they are working to take care of their own hearts.