Sentara is committed to providing you with lifesaving care that helps you lead a better quality of life. We are known for our expertise in performing heart transplant procedures, as well as kidney and pancreas transplants.
During this procedure, our transplant and cardiovascular teams replace the diseased heart with a healthy heart from a donor. You receive the highest level of care from a team of specialists to ensure that every part of your care is managed successfully. Some of the members of your team will include:
- Advanced heart failure cardiologists
- Heart transplant surgeons
- Infectious disease specialists
- Immunologists (doctors who diagnose and treat disorders of the immune system)
- Transplant coordinators
- Patient navigators
- Pharmacists
- Social workers
At Sentara, we provide compassionate, expert care and innovative treatments throughout your transplant journey, including:
We offer the latest left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to help your failing heart pump blood. We may recommend an LVAD if you have end-stage heart failure.
LVADs are mechanical pumps that we implant into your chest. The battery-operated device assists the main pumping chamber of your heart and supports your heart in pumping blood throughout your body.
Depending on your health, an LVAD may:
- Provide critical support until a donor heart is available. You may hear the LVAD called bridge-to-transplant therapy in this case.
- Support the heart long-term if you are not a candidate for a heart transplant or you do not wish to have one. Under this circumstance, we call the LVAD a destination therapy.