[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. HELENA HOSPITAL'S FIRST 
                           OPEN HEART SURGERY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 15, 1999

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 
St. Helena Hospital as it celebrates its 25th anniversary of the first 
open heart surgery in the hospital's Cardiac Center. Located in my 
hometown of St. Helena in the Napa Valley, St. Helena Hospital is one 
of the country's premier medical facilities. But I don't say that just 
because this is the hospital where my mother, my father, one of my sons 
and I were born and where my wife, Janet, worked as a nurse in the 
Intensive Care Unit.
  The St. Helena Hospital has an outstanding cardiac care facility. It 
began in May of 1974, when Wilfred Tam, M.D. performed the North Bay's 
first open-heart surgery at St. Helena Hospital. This made St. Helena 
Hospital one of the first community hospitals to perform the procedure. 
The surgery was just one in a series of firsts in the region for the 
hospital's Cardiac Center, which opened in 1972. Today, St. Helena 
Hospital's Cardiac surgery team has more than 68 years of combined 
surgical experience and has performed more than 15,000 open-heart 
surgeries.
  Recognized as a pioneer and a leader in cardiac care, St. Helena 
Hospital has continued its tradition of high-tech innovation. In 1997, 
it was the nation's first hospital to purchase the Medtronic Octopus, a 
device that immobilizes the beating heart during minimally invasive 
bypass surgery.
  Installed in 1993, St. Helena Hospital's digital by-plane 
cardiovascular catheterization suite was the first of its kind in the 
United States. Work is scheduled to begin this year to upgrade the 
hospital's other suite with new, state-of-the-art equipment.
  To celebrate its quarter-century of excellence in cardiac care, St. 
Helena Hospital is hosting a community celebration on September 26, 
1999 honoring the physicians and staff who make the Cardiac Center a 
leader in heart health, and also honoring the ``Mended Hearts'' for 
whom they have cared over the years.
  Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate at this time that we acknowledge and 
honor the St. Helena Hospital Cardiac Center for its outstanding 
Cardiac Center and for its tremendous twenty-five year commitment to 
providing the very best in quality health care.

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