Pancreas Transplant Diabetes-Heart Failure

A retired heart and transplant surgeon who was disabled and retired in 2002 due to Graves Disease and Diabetes, who has since been a pro bono volunteer educator John Macoviak MD.

Jimmy Light MD Director of Transplantation at the Washington Hospital Center and John Macoviak MD assisted lead surgeon Dr. Professor Hans Sollinger MD Chairman of Transplantation at the University of Wisconsin who had been reviewing this case for many weeks and was flown in from the University of Wisconsin in the the first in the world's first combined Pancreas Heart Transplant in Washington DC.

Several have been done by others subsequently with long-term survivors.

John Macoviak MD was trained by the worlds most famous highly esteemed and dominating cardiac surgeon legends in many minds in that era the mid 1980's. They included Doctors. Norman E. Shumway MD PhD,, Edward B. Stinson MD, Philip E. Oyer MD PhD, D. Craig Miller MD, Stuart Jamieson MB, , R Scott Mitchell MD, John C. Baldwin MD Rhodes Scholar, James B.D. Mark MD, along with Co-Chief Residents Bill Frist MD, Chris C.G. MacGregor MD, Vaughn Starnes MD, John Dein MD and Carlos Moreno Cabral MD. He established the Washington Regional Heart Transplant Consortium and performed the first 30 heart transplants in Washington DC.

The patient who received the new heart and pancreas was a longtime diabetic with progressive heart failure in the weeks leading up to the surgery. At the time, a pancreas transplant was viewed as a compassionate experimental procedure, and is usually targeted at diabetics whose pancreases fail to produce enough insulin. Diabetics usually require daily injections of insulin; however, in severe cases, the disease often progresses and destroys the kidney. However, in this particular case, the patient’s heart was the main organ affected.

The operation took about six hours.. The patient was a prominent U.S. Government scientist. He would not have survived without these surgeries and the doctors determined that only a heart transplant would not have sufficed; the pancreas transplant was necessary for the patient’s potential survival. The heart functioned well but the pancreas never worked likely due to organ rejection.

Help Someone Having a Heart Attack

A retired heart and transplant surgeon who was disabled and retired in 2002 due to Graves Disease, who has since been a pro bono volunteer educator John Macoviak MD was trained by the worlds most famous highly esteemed and dominating cardiac surgeons in that era the mid 1980's. They included Doctors. Norman E. Shumway MD PhD,, Edward B. Stinson MD, Philip E. Oyer MD PhD, D. Craig Miller MD, Stuart Jamieson MB, , R Scott Mitchell MD, John C. Baldwin MD Rhodes Scholar, James B.D. Mark MD, along with Co-Chief Residents Bill Frist MD, Chris C.G. MacGregor MD, Vaughn Starnes MD, John Dein MD and Carlos Moreno Cabral MD. He established the Washington Regional Heart Transplant Consortium and performed the first 30 heart transplants in Washington DC. He and Jimmy Light MD assisted Dr. Hans Sollinger MD in the the first in the world combined Pancreas Heart Transplant in Washington DC. Several have been done by others subsequently with long-term survivors. He had served as an educator for esteemed universities. In his YouTube video “4 Steps to Help Someone Having a Heart Attack,” John Macoviak MD offers insight on the symptoms of a heart attack, what to do if you are with someone who is experiencing a heart attack, and some tips on what to do if you are having a heart attack.

If someone is having a heart attack, it is important to remain calm and take control. The symptoms of a heart attack vary; however, some common symptoms are pain or fullness in the chest, dizziness, sweating, nausea, shortness of breath, pain that lasts for more than 15 minutes, and discomfort that expands from the heart to the arm and up to the jaw. Most people who have heart attacks experience warning signs hours, days, or weeks before the heart attack occurs.

If you are experiencing a heart attack, do not drive yourself to the emergency room. Call 911 or call someone for help in getting to the hospital. Second, giving someone aspirin during a heart attack has been medically proven to save a life. If the person is unresponsive, put the aspirin under their tongue to dissolve the tablet. If the person has an allergy to aspirin or has been advised by their physician to not take aspirin, skip this step. The next thing to do is begin CPR. Depending on the severity of the heart attack, the person experiencing it may become unconscious. If you are not properly trained to give CPR, a 911 operator can assist you over the phone. Begin giving around 100-120 chest compressions per minute.

If a person becomes unconscious from a heart attack at a place of business or facility in public, use an automated external defibrillator if one is readily available. Follow the instructions and begin using it to resuscitate them. It is important to note that these machines are very dangerous, so make sure to follow the directions completely. For those having a heart attack who have a heart condition, they may have a prescription for nitroglycerin, a medication that can help keep them alive and keep their heart from sustaining a serious injury before help arrives. However never take or give these drugs to anyone except for those who have a prescription for it.