You Can Help

Our vision is that someday cardiac surgery for our pets will be considered as part of the normal and ordinary care offered by modern veterinary medicine. Many hurdles stand in the way. Once (less than 50 years ago) human pioneers had this same vision. In many cases their vision for bringing cardiac surgery into the mainstream of medicine was looked on with ill favor. "it doesn't work, It costs too much, too many patients die, etc", was the refrain of the nay sayers. Today cardiac operations are among the most common operations performed. There are some 300,000 cardiac operations performed on humans in the US alone.

A primary stumbling block in bringing this new focus to veterinary medicine is the need to have accomplished many successful operations. Successful operations are best performed on patients that are early in their disease. The classic conundrum of reserving surgical treatment as a last ditch effort until it is shown to be successful leaves our team trying to make the best of the worst cases.

We are currently subsidizing the cost of the surgery to encourage earlier intervention. Our funds are limited and our needs are great. If you are interested in helping to bring our ideas to fruition please contact Dr. Fossum.

Theresa W. Fossum, DVM, PhD
Diplomate ACVS
Tom and Joan Read Chair in Veterinary Surgery
Associate Director Cardiothoracic Surgery and Biomedical Devices, Michael E. DeBakey Institute
Professor of Surgery
Texas A&M University
College of Veterinary Medicine
College Station, Texas 77843-4474

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		You Can Help Our vision is that someday cardiac surgery for our pets will be considered as part of the normal and ordinary care offered by modern veterinary medicine. Many hurdles stand in the way. Once (less than 50 years ago) human pioneers had this same vision. In many cases their vision for bringing cardiac surgery into the mainstream of medicine was looked on with ill favor. "it doesn't work, It costs too much, too many patients die, etc", was the refrain of the nay sayers. Today cardiac operations are among the most common operations performed. There are some 300,000 cardiac operations performed on humans in the US alone. A primary stumbling block in bringing this new focus to veterinary medicine is the need to have accomplished many successful operations. Successful operations are best performed on patients that are early in their disease. The classic conundrum of reserving surgical treatment as a last ditch effort until it is shown to be successful leaves our team trying to make the best of the worst cases. We are currently subsidizing the cost of the surgery to encourage earlier intervention. Our funds are limited and our needs are great. If you are interested in helping to bring our ideas to fruition please contact Dr. Fossum. Theresa W. Fossum, DVM, PhD Diplomate ACVS Tom and Joan Read Chair in Veterinary Surgery Associate Director Cardiothoracic Surgery and Biomedical Devices, Michael E. DeBakey Institute Professor of Surgery Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine College Station, Texas 77843-4474