TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Tampa General Hospital is one of the first in the country to attempt a new method for patients with congestive heart failure.
Doctors successfully transplanted a heart that never stopped beating.
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Charlie Wesley is upbeat and feeling better than he has in years.
“One day, I was just lying in the bed, and then I had shortness of breath,” he described. “I couldn’t really breathe.”
Wesley has been dealing with congestive heart failure since 2016.
“I didn’t really know what it meant at that time,” he explained. “It was scary.”
Doctor Gundars Katlaps and the team at Tampa General Hospital and USF Health calmed Wesley’s fears. They’re some of the first physicians in the country to perform a beating heart transplant.
“Through the travel, on the plane, the heart came beating to TGH, came beating to the operating room,” Katlaps said.
According to the cardiothoracic surgeon, the groundbreaking method minimizes damage to the organ and improves the outcome for patients.