More than 200 patients, physicians and donors crowded into the second floor of Boca Raton Community Hospitals Christine E. Lynn Heart Institute to celebrate the first anniversary of the first new open-heart program in Palm Beach County since 1984. The event featured heart-felt presentations by founder Christine E. Lynn, hospital president and CEO Gary Strack, cardiovascular surgeon and medical director of the institute Dr. James Morris, cardiologist and chief of cardiology Dr. Jonathan Seckler, and patients who have been treated at the institute since it opened in Sept. 2006.
(l-r) Melissa Durbin, R.N., executive director of the Lynn Heart Institute; Christine E. Lynn; Gary Strack, president and CEO of Boca Raton Community Hospital; cardiovascular surgeon and Medical Director of the institute Dr. James Morris
Since it opened on the campus of Boca Raton Community Hospital, the institute has conducted more than twice the anticipated open heart procedures at 270, as well as 2172 cardiac catheterizations, 733 angioplasties, and implanted 388 pacemakers. With more than 50 cardiologists and two cardiovascular surgeons on staff, it has eliminated the need for patients to travel potentially life-threatening distances to receive comprehensive emergency cardiac care.
The institute has also cited an extremely low mortality rate of 0.6 percent for coronary artery bypass surgeries, versus an expected rate of 4.2 percent, according to the national cardiac database. Physicians said a significant contributing factor is that they specialize in bypass surgery done “off-pump,” where 98 percent of bypass surgeries performed there were done without a heart-lung machine and without stopping the patient’s heart.
In just one year, the team of physicians have also performed a number of other life-saving operations, including removing a very rare tumor in Boca Raton based-resident Susan Gerdings heart and then just a few months later, performing heart surgery on her husband, Ed. In June, they also performed a triple by-pass surgery on Freda Lynn Frey, sister-in-law of the institutes founder Christine E. Lynn.
