Maimonides Heart and Vascular Institute is home to Brooklyn’s only LVAD Program. The LVAD is a left ventricular assist device that offers lifesaving care to people with advanced heart failure by helping maintain the pumping activity of the heart’s left ventricle when it can no longer function effectively on its own.
“When patients are diagnosed with advanced heart failure, it means they have sometimes less than a year or two to live. What the LVAD does is allow those people to have a longer lifespan, a better quality of life than they’ve been living with advanced heart failure,” says Dr. Paul Saunders, a cardiothoracic surgeon and director of the LVAD Program at Maimonides.
Maimonides is proud to make this advanced treatment option available to people living in the outer boroughs, including Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and connect underserved communities with access to leading-edge heart care.
“Not every hospital can provide LVAD therapy. It requires a lot of infrastructure and it requires a large team to perform these surgeries and take care of these patients in the setting they need,” says Dr. Saunders.
And care doesn’t stop after LVAD recipients leave the hospital. The monthly Maimonides LVAD Support Group Meeting offers a way for patients to share their experiences of living with an LVAD, as well as stay connected with their clinical team and social workers on continued medical management and insurance matters.
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About Maimonides Health
Maimonides Health is Brooklyn’s largest healthcare system, providing more than 1 million patient visits each year through the system’s three hospitals, 1,800+ physicians, and more than 80 community-based practices and outpatient centers. Our system is anchored by Maimonides Medical Center, one of the nation’s largest independent teaching hospitals and home to centers of excellence in numerous specialties; Maimonides Midwood Community Hospital (formerly New York Community Hospital), a 130-bed adult medical–surgical hospital; and Maimonides Children’s Hospital, Brooklyn’s only children’s hospital and only pediatric trauma center.
Maimonides’ clinical programs rank among the best in the country for patient outcomes, including our Heart and Vascular Institute, Neurosciences Institute, Bone and Joint Center, and Cancer Center. For additional information, please visit www.maimo.org and follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.