Heart & Vascular News

KSDK-TV reports on Fostaire Helicopters, which recently transported a donor heart that would save the life of Fostaire owner Arlene Thomas.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital and its physician partners at Washington University School of Medicine are one of only 14 hospitals and medical institutions in the country listed among America’s elite medical centers in U.S.News & World Report’s List of “America’s Best Hospitals.”

Arlene Thomas, 54, of Oakville, MO, was used to setting up deliveries of donor organs to Barnes-Jewish Hospital by helicopter. On June 30, she received one of those deliveries and a heart transplant.

Washington University cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Alan Braverman, MD, and an international panel of experts in the diagnosis and management of Marfan syndrome – a potentially fatal genetic disorder – have published new diagnostic criteria, thus simplifying the evaluation process for physicians.

Washington University surgeons performed the first combined heart-kidney transplant at Barnes-Jewish Hospital June 2 and 3 on Jonathan Sadowski, 20, of O’Fallon, MO. The transplant offers hope for other area patients suffering from both heart and kidney failure.