Gordon Gee joins in the anouncement of WVU medicines implementation of heart transplants at the WVU Heart and Cardiovascular Institute on Wednesday. (Shelby Thoburn)
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WVU Medicine to offer heart transplants

by The Dominion Post

MORGANTOWN — WVU Medicine will begin its first heart transplant program at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute.

The plans were announced at a press conference Sept. 19 at the institute. Gov. Jim Justice and Gordon Gee, WVU president and chair of the WVU Health System Board of Directors, were on hand. The program will debut in 2019.

There are 22 state residents on the waiting list for a heart transplant, who typically must travel to Pittsburgh or Cleveland, according to a press release.

“We constructed and equipped our 10-story WVU Heart and Vascular Institute to be the most state-of-the-art facility available, and we recruited nationally and internationally recognized cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists and vascular surgeons in order to provide the most advanced care available,” stated Albert L. Wright Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, in the release.