At Methodist Heart and Lung Institute Heart Failure and Transplant Center, our comprehensive heart failure program offers medical and surgical therapies for heart failure, including medication, infusion therapy, mechanical assistive devices and heart transplantation.

Our specialists are experts in heart care, providing treatment for heart failure patients and offering education and support services to ensure a healthy lifestyle post-surgery or transplant. We also provide cardiac rehabilitation services to equip patients with the proper tools to maintain a healthy diet and build an exercise plan.

Lung transplants can extend and possibly improve quality of life for patients who meet specific criteria. Methodist Hospital’s lung transplant program provides each patient with a personalized approach and a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, physical therapists and dietitians.

To learn more about our services, or refer a patient, please call the Methodist Heart and Lung Institute Heart Failure and Transplant Center at (210) 575-8485.

Heart failure can present itself in a variety of ways. If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, it's important to speak with your doctor:

• Feeling of suffocation while sleeping
• Increased heart rate
• Persistent coughing or wheezing
• Shortness of breath performing everyday activities
• Sudden weight gain from fluid retention
• Swelling of the legs or abdomen
• Waking up in the middle of the night short of breath
• Weakness and fatigue

Heart failure is a chronic condition that cannot be cured. But with medication and healthy lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, heart failure can usually be successfully managed.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), the process of removing and oxygenating the patient's blood and returning the blood to the patient's body, is an advanced life support available to a patient experiencing acute failure of their cardio-respiratory system. Our team can consider this for patients with severe cardiac failure and a potentially reversible cause for those who meet the appropriate criteria.

A heart transplant can help patients with heart failure who have exhausted all other medical therapies. As a final, lifesaving option, heart transplants are only considered for patients with severe heart failure who meet heart transplant criteria and have healthy organs otherwise.

Patients with advanced lung disease and little response to other medical or surgical therapies are candidates for a lung transplant. Advanced diseases treated by a lung transplant include:

• Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency
• Bronchiectasis
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including emphysema
• Congenital heart disease with Eisenmenger syndrome
• Cystic fibrosis
• Interstitial lung disease
• Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM)
• Pulmonary arterial hypertension
• Pulmonary fibrosis
• Sarcoidosis
• Severe bronchiectasis

More information about the lung transplant process, including surgery and recovery, can be found on our Transplant services page.