TREASURE COAST MEDICAL REPORT Matters
120 HEART
of thHe eart
BY SUSAN BURGESS
T he first time
Barbara Emard underwent
open heart surgery,
she made the hour-long
drive from her home in Vero
Beach to Holmes Regional
Medical Center in Melbourne.
Nearly seven years later,
the exhaustion symptomatic
of her heart disease returned.
But this time, it was a fiveminute
trip to Indian River
Medical Center, where Dr.
Cary Stowe performed openheart
surgery in June to
replace her mitral valve.
In between the two surgeries
she watched as Indian
River Medical Center applied
to the state for permission to
begin its own heart surgery
program in 2004, and then
affiliated itself with Duke
University Health System in
2005 to set up the program
that opened in November
2006.
“I was hoping we’d have
this here,” said Emard, who
PHOTO BY IRMC
The Treasure Coast now boasts
three heart surgery programs,
providing residents the option
of having heart surgery in their
own county
PHOTO BY PORFIRIO SOLORZANO
Barbara Emard underwent successful mitral valve replacement surgery at Indian River Medical Center in June.
Before IRMC began its own heart surgery in 2004, Emard had to travel out of town for treatment. Now she’s
back driving her golf cart around her neighborhood and returning to her job as a hostess at Cracker Barrel in
Vero Beach. Above, Dr. Joel Greenberg peforms a cardiac catheterization at Indian River Medical Center.
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