The Texas Heart Institute - History

History

1962 – Charter for the Texas Heart Institute is filed at the Texas Capitol Building on August 3.
1967 – Ground is broken on June 26 for the St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital expansion program for the Texas Heart Institute and a 28-story patient tower.
1972 – Eight new operating suites are opened for surgery, three of which have overhead viewing galleries, or “domes,” for teaching purposes.
1974 – Clayton Research Cardiac Catheterization Labs are opened.
1976 – The first accredited School of Perfusion Technology in the United States is opened.
1977 – Electrophysiology laboratories are opened.
1978 – Institute surgeons perform the first bridge-to-transplant procedure, wherein a left ventricular assist device is used to support the patient until a donor heart becomes available for transplantation.
1980 – Two more operating suites are opened for surgery.
1981 – Institute surgeons perform the second implantation in the world of an artificial heart in a human.
1983 – “Skybreaking” ceremony on December 13 officially begins the construction phase of an expansion plan to add four new floors.
1991 – Patient with a portable, battery-powered left ventricular assist device becomes the first in the world to leave the hospital with his device.
1998 – Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital is chosen as one of six centers where cardiac magnetic resonance imaging trials are performed.
1999 – The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the use of a stent graft for the repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms; the device was tested exclusively at the Texas Heart Institute.
2000 – The Texas Heart Institute becomes the first site for clinical trials of the Jarvik 2000, a miniature, axial flow left ventricular assist device.
2001 – Institute surgeons perform the 100,000th open heart operation at the Texas Heart Institute.

– Dr. O.H. Frazier implants the AbioCor total artificial heart in a patient as part of a clinical trial of the device.

2002 – The dedication of the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital–The Denton A. Cooley Building takes place.
2003 – The Texas Heart Institute becomes the first nationally ranked cardiovascular center in the United States to open a simulation training laboratory for cardiac catheterization procedures.
2004 – The Texas Heart Institute begins the first FDA-approved clinical trial in the United States of adult stem cell therapy for the treatment of congestive heart failure.
2006 – Institute surgeons perform the 1000th heart transplant procedure at the Texas Heart Institute.
2007 – The National Institutes of Health selects the Texas Heart Institute as one of five centers for a stem cell study consortium.
2008 – The Texas Heart Institute receives a grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a new total artificial heart that will comprise 2 small, continuous flow ventricular assist devices—the first total artificial heart of its kind.
2008 – Dr. James T. Willerson assumes the role of president of the Texas Heart Institute, effective August 1.