The best care for your heart
Find it at the new Cardiac Care Center

Patricia Krauleidis woke up last July with an irregular heart rhythm she likens to corn popping in her chest. “I had experienced this condition in the past, but earlier tests suggested it was only an inconvenience,” she says. “But that morning, I also had severe pain between my shoulder blades.” The 60-year-old floral designer alerted her fiancée, and together they went to the emergency room at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital.

Krauleidis was found to have advanced coronary artery disease and needed surgery. Fortunately, Good Shepherd Hospital had just inaugurated an open-heart surgery program, so she didn’t have to travel far to have it. Krauleidis soon became the first open-heart patient at Good Shepherd Hospital.

Since then, more than 180 open-heart surgeries have been performed at the hospital. “We also perform leading-edge minimally invasive and open-heart techniques, including bypasses, stent procedures, valve surgeries, aortic aneurism surgery and endoscopic and digital imagery procedures,” says Pat Pappas, M.D., medical director of cardiovascular surgery at Good Shepherd Hospital. These treatments are paired with the expertise of a highly skilled staff. For instance, the group of cardiovascular surgeons led by Dr. Pappas (who also is on staff at Advocate Christ Medical Center) has performed the largest number of open-heart surgeries in Northern Illinois.

Open-heart surgery at Good Shepherd Hospital is more than convenient—it’s lifesaving. “Patients used to be transferred elsewhere for a bypass,” says Sunil Kadakia, M.D., F.A.C.C., an interventional cardiologist at Good Shepherd Hospital. “Such a dangerous delay in care is now a thing of the past. It’s wonderful for our patients to have advanced cardiac care right in our community.”

Today at the hospital’s new Wayne & Patricia Kocourek Family Cardiac Care Center, cardiac surgery patients are admitted to one of the center’s 18 “universal beds,” where they stay through discharge—a concept available at only a few hospitals nationwide. Remaining in the same bed and care environment throughout their hospital stay can help im-prove a patient’s healing process.

After her successful surgery and five-day hospital stay, Krauleidis joined the outpatient cardiac rehab-ilitation program, where she was delighted to see the familiar nurses she knew from the floor. “Because of the unique way they staff the center, the care is seamless,” she says.

These days, Krauleidis feels very lucky to have been treated at Good Shepherd Hospital. “Thanks to the bypass, my heart has remained healthy,” she says. Krauleidis is now enjoying life with renewed vigor.