Sandip Zalawadiya

Patent Wesley Crutcher with medical team members, from left, Madeline Crego, ACNP, Kashish Goel, MD, Sandip Zalawadiya, MD, Jaime Rich, Rebecca King, RN, and Aileen Balmaceda, RN.
February 26, 2025

Vanderbilt Health implants novel device to monitor atrial pressure inside patient’s heart in real time

The V-LAP device allows medical teams to monitor the pressure inside a patient’s heart in real time, allowing them to make better decisions about the patient’s medications and improving outcomes.

By Matt Batcheldor
Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute patient Tony Conaway with his wife, Kim.
May 11, 2023

100th patient receives ambulatory heart failure device

New implantable device helps heart failure patients monitor crucial health indicators remotely, reducing the need for hospital visits.

By Matt Batcheldor
LVAD patient Autumn Bowling with her cardiologist, Sandip Zalawadiya, MBBS, during a follow-up visit.
January 26, 2023

LVAD, medication therapy help patient’s heart recover full function

Six months receiving an LVAD at Vanderbilt, Autumn Bowling’s heart fully recovered its function and doctors were able to turn the device off, a rare feat.

By Matt Batcheldor
Bariatric surgery patient Veronica Llamas-Barajas recently received a heart transplant.
September 15, 2022

Patient’s care journey included LVAD, bariatric surgery, transplant

When Veronica Llamas-Barajas received a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in April, it was the culmination of a seven-year journey.

By Matt Batcheldor
Patient Veronica Llamas-Barajas (light gray shirt) with members of her care team, from left, Casey West, MSN, ANP-BC, Sandip Zalawadiya, MBBS, Jessica Hassler, RN, Wendy Tarpley, RN, and Wayne English, MD.
January 13, 2022

Bariatric surgery gave LVAD patient second chance at life

Veronica Llamas-Barajas is the first LVAD patient at Vanderbilt to undergo bariatric surgery.

By Matt Batcheldor
September 15, 2021

VHVI reaches milestone in cardiac monitor implants

Vanderbilt has reached a new milestone in implanting CardioMEMS remote cardiac monitoring devices.

By Matt Batcheldor
September 2, 2021

Novel LVAD allows patient to see family, celebrate milestones

Brandon Cochran, a 39-year-old real estate agent in Louisville, Kentucky, was at home with his family in October 2020 when he went into cardiac arrest. His implanted defibrillator shocked him back to life, and he was hospitalized for seven months.
By Matt Batcheldor
July 30, 2020

Device allows VHVI doctors to monitor heart patients remotely

In 2018, Ronnie Kreis began to develop severe heart failure. After being hospitalized multiple times that year near his home in Oliver Springs in East Tennessee, he was told that nothing else could be done.
By Matt Batcheldor
May 6, 2020

Ventricular assist device program hits major milestone

VHVI’s cardiac surgery and heart failure teams recently celebrated a milestone — implanting the 500th adult patient with a ventricular assist device.
By Matt Batcheldor
April 29, 2020

Heart to heart

This teacher got a life-saving heart transplant. So did her student. What are the odds?
By Matt Batcheldor
March 28, 2019

First artificial heart patient gets permanent replacement

Tim Lowell of Hernando, Mississippi, received the first total artificial heart in the state of Tennessee when the cardiac surgery team at Vanderbilt Health placed the device in his chest on Sept. 26, 2018. The mechanical heart kept him alive for nearly three months until a matching human donor heart became available and he was transplanted on Dec. 16, 2018, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
By Matt Batcheldor