May 12, 2006, was a monumental day in Neal Bira’s life, but he doesn’t remember a second of it. Early that fateful day, the 54-year-old Manhattanite suffered a massive heart attack — the kind that cardiologists call a “widow maker” — landing him in a medically induced coma for two weeks. His wife, Bonnie, was told to prepare for the worst. He needed a new heart, but he wasn’t strong enough to withstand a transplant. To surmount this medical Catch-22, a team of cardiac surgeons led by Drs. Greg Ribakove and Gregory Crooke implanted a left-ventricular assist device — a partial artificial heart of sorts — into Mr. Bira’s chest. After two months, he was strong enough to go home and to be placed on the national waiting list for a donor heart. “These guys saved my life,” says Mr. Bira, referring to his NYU doctors. “I’ll never forget it.” On August 13, he was referred for a transplant to our colleagues at a regional heart transplant center. “NYU made sure I was in the right hands,” he says. As luck would have it, a heart became available 36 hours later. Today, Mr. Bira is on the mend, enjoying his second chance at life.
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