Surgery milestone ‘a privilege’ for cardiac team

13/10/22

Lake Macquarie Private Hospital is celebrating nearly three decades of providing “a great patient experience” following the 8,888th heart surgery by its cardiac team.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Allen James, who was working at the hospital for the first case 28 years ago, said he was proud to help so many people from New South Wales’ Hunter Region with potentially life-saving procedures.

“It’s a privilege to be able to help people in this way,” he said. 

“I love to see people get through really complex operations and have improved quality of life and length of life.” 

Dr James paid tribute to his colleagues Dr Rosauro Mejia and Dr Taranpreet Singh, along with the team’s nurses, anaesthetists and support staff. 

“I love being part of a strong, supportive team,” he said. 

“Some of the people I work with were juniors when I started at the hospital in the 1990s and are still working with us after all those years.

“The continuity among theatre, ICU, and the ward is excellent, which gives a great patient experience.” 

Dr James said the cardiac team was now dealing with a “much greater complexity” of cases at the Gateshead-based hospital, which is part of the Ramsay Health Care group.

“When the unit first started we did primarily bypass surgery,” he said.

“Now we do a lot of valve surgeries including valve repairs and aortic surgery, complex re-do heart surgery and, in addition to our heart surgery, a large amount of thoracic surgery.”