Pediatric Open Heart Surgery Performed Here
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Whether young or old, when it comes to health care, the medical facilities in McAllen get right to the heart of it.
The Valley’s first pediatric open-heart surgery was performed in 2009 at Rio Grande Regional Hospital’s Pediatric Pavilion, when surgeons performed an atrial septal defect closure procedure on a 3-year-old.
“We have the only pediatric cardiovascular program in the Valley in South Texas,” says Greg Seiler, Rio Grande Regional Hospital CEO. “The fact that these types of complex surgical procedures are beginning to be performed on children in the Valley exemplifies that advanced health care is available close to home.”
Seiler explains that the advanced cardiac care provided to children takes the burden off families during a traumatic time.
“The residents of the Valley no longer have to travel as far as two hours away for these services,” Seiler says. “It’s traumatic enough that your young child has to have a cardiac procedure, whether it’s open heart surgery or a catheterization. Parents would have to pack up and travel, leaving behind the family support group, church support and other help during stressful times, and go to an unfamiliar environment.
Because of the level of professional services offered through our hospital, they no longer have to do that.”
With 66 beds, a pediatric ICU (under the direction of Dr. Krishna Turlapati) and a Pediatric Step-Down Unit, the Pediatric Pavilion is also undertaking procedures such as cochlear implants and electrophysiology.
“Our pediatric ICU is 14 beds, staffed with a very strong group of board-certified specialists,” says Kathy Dassler, chief nursing officer, noting that members of the pediatric heart team received specialized hands-on training with San Antonio’s Methodist Children’s Hospital of South Texas.
“The collaborative efforts of Methodist and their willingness to share their expertise with us have helped the preparation process to run smoothly,” she says.
Rio Grande is a 320-bed, full-service acute-care hospital, with more than 500 physicians representing 35 specialties on staff, and it provides the community with the only Accredited Diabetes Management Center.
The community’s longest-operating health care facility is McAllen Medical Center, which opened in 1919. Today, this thriving facility, with 441 beds, offers a broad range of community-focused services provided by a medical staff that includes more than 400 physicians representing more than 50 medical specialties.
Also serving McAllen is the 506-bed Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, which was named to the 2008 list of the 100 Top Hospitals for the nation by Thomson Reuters, one of the major sources of health-care business intelligence providing an independent study. The hospital has a medical staff of more than 500 physicians covering a broad spectrum of medical and surgical services, including outpatient diagnostic services, cardiology and pediatric oncology services.
Story by Betsy Williams
