Mr. Yitzhak Bar-Chen, an accountant, suffered for many years from poor health due to blockages in his coronary arteries. Yitzchak recounts, “My health was deteriorating and I could not walk, I stopped working and I could hardly function. Only 20% of my heart was working and my family feared for my life.” Yitzchak came to Shaare Zedek and met with Dr. Tal Hasin, the Head of the Heart Failure Unit in the Cardiology Department at Shaare Zedek Medical Center and it was decided that Yitzchak would have a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), often referred to as an “artificial heart” or a “heart pump,” implanted at Rabin Medical Center in close collaboration with the heart failure unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Following the transplant, Mr. Bar-Chen began rehabilitation at Shaare Zedek’s Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Institute headed by Dr. Jacob Klein. A year later Yitzchak Bar- Chen shares, “I was very scared of the long and highly invasive surgery, however, accompanied by Dr. Hasin, we overcame the challenges. Now I can sleep, work, and go for walks regularly.”

In the Photo: Dr. Tal Hasin and Yitzchak Bar-Chen.