Sandip Zalawadiya Archives

Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute patient Tony Conaway with his wife, Kim.

100th patient receives ambulatory heart failure device

May. 11, 2023—New implantable device helps heart failure patients monitor crucial health indicators remotely, reducing the need for hospital visits.

LVAD patient Autumn Bowling with her cardiologist, Sandip Zalawadiya, MBBS, during a follow-up visit.

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

Jan. 26, 2023—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.

Bariatric surgery patient Veronica Llamas-Barajas recently received a heart transplant.

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

Sep. 15, 2022—When Veronica Llamas-Barajas received a heart transplant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in April, it was the culmination of a seven-year journey.

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.

Bariatric surgery gave LVAD patient second chance at life

Jan. 13, 2022—Veronica Llamas-Barajas is the first LVAD patient at Vanderbilt to undergo bariatric surgery.

VHVI reaches milestone in cardiac monitor implants

Sep. 15, 2021—Vanderbilt has reached a new milestone in implanting CardioMEMS remote cardiac monitoring devices.

After receiving his LVAD, patient Brandon Cochran was able to leave the hospital and spend more time with his wife, Amy, and daughters Olivia and Stella.

Novel LVAD allows patient to see family, celebrate milestones

Sep. 2, 2021—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.

Heart patient Ronnie Kreis is monitored by VHVI doctors while he’s at his home in East Tennessee.

Device allows VHVI doctors to monitor heart patients remotely

Jul. 30, 2020—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.

Ventricular assist device program hits major milestone

May. 6, 2020—VHVI’s cardiac surgery and heart failure teams recently celebrated a milestone — implanting the 500th adult patient with a ventricular assist device.

Tim Lowell, here with his wife, Ginger, was Tennessee’s first total artificial heart transplant patient. He recently received a permanent donor heart.

First artificial heart patient gets permanent replacement

Mar. 28, 2019—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.

VUMC Reporter