At the Heart Center at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center, world-class physicians, nurses and techs work tirelessly to repair arteries and stabilize heartbeats – to make heart recovery possible for our community. And tirelessly means middle-of-the-night shifts.

“My wife will tell you, we get up in the middle of the night a lot of times to do these things,” Health First Interventional Cardiologist Steve Karas, MD, told his patient. “It’s so rewarding to see where you are right now.”

Dr. Karas was speaking to Lora Vanmeir of Sebastian at a reunion celebration inside the Heart Center atrium. Vanmeir and another patient, Henry Dexter of Melbourne, and their families were joined by dozens of Heart Center clinicians and staff, including Karas and fellow Interventional Cardiologists Thierry Momplaisir, MD, and Dinesh Patel, MD, and by a few Brevard County Fire Rescue first responders.

“Well, I’m very grateful,” said Vanmeir. “I told my daughter, ‘My main point in coming here is – I’ve got to meet Dr. Karas, to thank him for saving my life.’ ”

Both Vanmeir and Dexter were saved by world-class surgeons, minimally invasive catheterizations – and an external heart pump called Impella. The night was organized with help from Abiomed, maker of the Impella heart pump.

READ the full story in Space Coast Daily here.