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Special Thanksgiving for Lincoln Resident Brian Bencken; Heart Transplant Performed Wednesday at BryanLGH Medical Center
For release: Immediately
Date: November 24, 2005
Contact: Edgar Bumanis, 402-481-8663
Number: 05-93
LINCOLN: For Brian Bencken and his family, this Thanksgiving has special meaning. Bencken, a Lincoln resident, is in good condition following heart transplant surgery at BryanLGH Medical Center Wednesday, November 23, said Nancy Steckelberg, transplant clinic nurse practitioner. Surgery, the 130th heart transplant at BryanLGH, was performed by cardiac, thoracic and transplant surgeon Edward Raines, MD, BryanLGH Heart Institute. Bencken, 48, is married to Pam Bencken and has two daughters, Katie and Jacque.
Bencken suffered from ischemic cardiomyopathy (ineffective pumping of the heart). For temporary support as a bridge to transplantation, he received a HeartMate® vented electric left ventricular assist system in June 2005. The portable HeartMate® allowed Bencken to live at home while waiting for a donor heart and his transplant surgery. The device assists the pumping function of one of the two main pumping chambers, or ventricles, of the heart. Measuring four inches in diameter and weighing 2.8 pounds, the HeartMate® is placed in the abdominal cavity near the cardiovascular system. When the natural heart empties blood into the mechanical pump, an electric motor ejects the blood through the body.
The BryanLGH Artificial Heart/Transplant Program will celebrate its 20th anniversary on March 3, 2006. It is the longest continuing heart transplant program in Nebraska. During the years, survival rates for heart transplant patients at BryanLGH have been consistently longer than national average. The program has a twenty-year survivor and several patients who received their hearts in the late 1980s.
The BryanLGH Artificial Heart/Transplant Program is the only Medicare approved adult heart transplant program in Nebraska.
In 1996 Raines and members of the BryanLGH heart team started the mechanical heart program and have nationally been leaders in several long-term therapy trials. Sixty patients have participated in this program.
For more information about the Artificial Heart/Transplant Program at BryanLGH Medical Center, call 402-481-3933.
