Care teams, patients, and community members gathered at LLUMC–Murrieta to celebrate the opening of its newly named Heart & Vascular Center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, March 30.
As a leading destination for advanced heart care in the region, the center offers comprehensive cardiovascular programs, personalized treatment plans, and advanced surgical care for patients. Heart care teams have annually performed about 8,500 non-invasive procedures, 300 advanced cardiothoracic surgeries, and over 5,000 invasive procedures encompassing heart catheterization, percutaneous coronary intervention, peripheral vascular studies, electrophysiology, cardiac rhythm management implants, congestive heart failure device implants, and endovascular procedures.
LLUMC–Murrieta’s structural heart program, launched in 2019, has offered over 1,000 structural heart procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement, left atrial appendage occlusion, and transcatheter mitral valve repair. The Heart & Vascular Center is now integrating these services, specialty expertise, and novel technology to offer innovative cardiac care.
“The opening of the Heart and Vascular Center is a first of its kind for this community,” says Jonathan Jean-Marie, Senior Vice President and Administrator at LLUMC–Murrieta. “This center brings together a multidisciplinary team of physician specialists, nurses, and ancillary staff to provide cutting-edge heart care to this community.”
One patient, Temecula resident William Richardson, rejoiced at the ribbon-cutting ceremony when reuniting with care team members who assisted him in undergoing a minimally invasive procedure called a left atrial appendage closure. Richardson has worked closely over the years with Niraj V. Parekh, MD, an interventional cardiologist and director of structural heart interventions and the transcatheter valve program at LLUMC – Murrieta. He says he feels more energetic and content after the heart procedure, which enabled him to quit taking a blood thinner that had been causing undesirable side effects.
Richardson, age 76, lives with an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AFib) that is prone to forming blood clots, potentially settling in the heart’s left atrial appendage and increasing the risk of stroke by five times. As a result of his AFib as well as a history of heart attack and angioplasty from 2015, Richardson adhered to a regimen of multiple medications — including a blood thinner that Richardson says caused undesirable side effects such as excessive bleeding and bruising, fatigue, and a “general run-down feeling.”
Together, Richardson and Parekh ran tests and determined that he qualified for a left atrial appendage closure. This minimally invasive procedure eliminates AFib patients’ need to take blood thinners while reducing stroke risk. Richardson says he had little reservations about undergoing the procedure because of his mutual trust with Parekh.
“I have absolute confidence in Dr. Parekh’s capabilities, and I know he has done hundreds of these procedures,” Richardson says. “I owe him these additional seven years of life so I could spend them with my lovely wife and family.”
Richardson says his experience receiving a left atrial appendage closure was seamless, and he left with positive, lasting impressions of the LLUMC–Murrieta care team — from the kindness and efficiency of check-in staff to cath lab, to pre and post-op nurses. He went home with his wife, Connie, the following day.
“They not only addressed my immediate healthcare needs, but they all took an interest in who I was,” he says.
In the months since his procedure, Richardson, a retired healthcare professional, has returned to his active lifestyle of biking, blogging, and traveling with Connie. He is also working on a book titled “The Grateful Heart," recounting his life and health experiences to encourage others facing similar predicaments. He says he cherishes the level of care he has received so close to home, as well as his relationship with Parekh and the team at LLUMC–Murrieta’s Heart & Vascular Center.
Parkeh says the cohesiveness of the heart care teams at LLUMC–Murrieta in their service to each individual, like Richardson, reflects the Heart & Vascular Center’s integrated, comprehensive care model.
“We are not just here for arteries, or heart attacks, or arrhythmias, or any single cardiovascular condition,” he says. “Our multi-disciplinary teams connect one-on-one with each patient for the whole picture, from head to toe. William has gone through many steps in our range of cardiac services, which are tied together to fit his unique needs.”