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Health Matters: Providence Mission Hospital | 11 Michael Neveux Photography Close to the Heart Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Sevak Darbinian is one reason why Providence Mission Hospital has been repeatedly recognized for its excellence in cardiac surgery. "I was having trouble breathing and I told my wife, 'I need to go to the hospital,' " recalls Price Shapiro, a 77-year-old resident of Lake Forest. "I said, 'I want to go to Mission.' I think I saved my life at that point." That's where Price's memory of the next few days ends, because he went into cardiac arrest when he and his wife, Debbie, arrived at the emergency department of Providence Mission Hospital. But Sevak Darbinian, MD, who has been chief of cardiac surgery at Mission since 2009 and was on call that day, remembers Price's arrival. "He was in cardiogenic shock. It was pretty bad," says Dr. Darbinian. "He was dying." In his role as lead cardiac surgeon, Dr. Darbinian deals with the most difficult and complex cases of heart disease. His training included a double residency—one completed in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the first surgeon ever to perform a coronary artery bypass graft, Vasilii Ivanovich Kolesov, and a second with the respected cardiothoracic surgeon Vaughn Starnes, MD, at the University of Southern California. Dr. Darbinian says that of the 180 to 200 surgeries he performs each year, about 10% are emergencies like Price's, and the remaining 90% are planned and scheduled. NO WARNING Although Price didn't notice any symptoms of heart disease beyond fatigue before the crisis, Dr. Darbinian found that his heart was not in good shape. Price had hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM), a thickening of the wall between the heart's ventricles that meant oxygenated blood couldn't get out into the body. Even worse, he also had a torn mitral valve, a problem that had apparently occurred spontaneously. That's why Price was having trouble breathing and why he ultimately went into cardiogenic shock. In back-to-back surgeries, Dr. Darbinian replaced the badly damaged mitral valve and shaved down the thickened wall that was trapping blood in the heart. Price also had a pacemaker and a defibrillator implanted to maintain and restore a normal heart rhythm. Although Dr. Darbinian describes Price's surgery as "not very complex for me," it was representative of a phenomenon that the doctor has observed over his years in practice. He says that today he's seeing patients who are sicker than in the past, a fact that he attributes to an aging population and the break in medical care that many people experienced because of COVID restrictions. HEALTHY AND HAPPY "It has been a long process," Price says, but "I feel great. I cannot express how grateful I am to Dr. Darbinian. I think I'm alive because of him." Debbie adds, "We really appreciate Dr. Darbinian. He came in to see Price every day in the hospital and oversaw all of Price's care and procedures. He was so kind and considerate to both of us." Dr. Darbinian says that it's patient stories like Price's that make his work worthwhile. "The best thing is shaking hands with the patient in the ER and promising them everything will be fine and then seeing them healthy and happy afterwards," he says. For the third consecutive year, Healthgrades gave Providence Mission Hospital the Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award, as one of the top 10% of hospitals in the nation for cardiac surgery. Healthgrades also named Mission Hospital a five-star recipient for coronary bypass surgery, for the second year in a row, and a five- star recipient for the treatment of pulmonary embolisms. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons recognized Mission with its highest ranking (three stars) for patient care and outcomes and for isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures.

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