Mike Hixenbaugh
Patients Wait in Limbo as St. Luke’s Heart Transplant Program Reviews Its Problems
“I sort of feel like we’ve been left in the dark,” says one patient’s wife, who learned from a reporter — and not the Houston hospital — about the program’s temporary suspension. An expert says it will likely take much longer than 14 days to fix.
St. Luke’s to Suspend Heart Transplants After Recent Deaths
The move comes two weeks after ProPublica and the Houston Chronicle reported on pervasive problems in the historic heart program.
A Pioneering Heart Surgeon’s Secret History of Research Violations, Conflicts of Interest and Poor Outcomes
Over decades, Bud Frazier has played a leading role in the development of mechanical heart pumps and an artificial heart. Out of public view, he’s been accused of putting his quest to make history ahead of the needs of some patients.
A Death in Slow Motion
A heart transplant. A medical mishap. A drawn-out ending. All told on Facebook.
At St. Luke’s in Houston, Patients Suffer as a Renowned Heart Transplant Program Loses Its Luster
The hospital and its legendary surgeon Denton Cooley performed some of the world’s first heart transplants back in the 1960s. In recent years, though, it has had some of the worst heart transplant outcomes in the country.
As Wait for New Heart Got Longer, Patient Grew Sicker
Baylor St. Luke’s in Houston was known for handling complex heart transplants. But when Travis Hogan was a patient there, he didn’t know that the program was undergoing a series of dramatic changes. He never got his heart.
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McCain’s Brain Cancer Draws Renewed Attention to Possible Agent Orange Connection
For years, Vietnam vets and their widows have been pushing the VA to extend benefits to those exposed to the toxic herbicide and later stricken with glioblastoma. The VA has said no, but advocates hope the agency will now revisit the issue.
