NCH Rooney Heart Institute: Joseph Lamelas, MD — Local services in Naples

Dr. Lamelas is a skilled and gifted surgeon and our family is grateful he was able to save my father. This isn’t just any surgeon, he is nationally recognized as the best in his field. His name needs no introduction in the cardiology circles. He’s the guy cardiologist say is worth the drive. We traveled outside of our region and have not looked back.

After doing much research and coming from a family of physicians including a cardiologist, we decided Dr. Lamelas was it for us. He was recommended to us from several cardiologist. While we were hoping for him to be able to use the less invasive method Dr. Lamelas has perfected, due to my fathers blockages in main arteries, he needed to have a more serious open heart surgery.

He and his team were able to perform an open heart surgery (second in my dads life as he had a Prior open heart 28 years prior to replace an aortic valve). They replaced my dads mitral valve, repaired another valve they found some damage on during surgery, and 4 bypasses all within about 4 hours with zero complications. Many surgeons would not be able to do this and this surgery often lasts 6-9 hours.

His work speaks for itself. My father is recovering and we could not be more thankful that he has devoted his life to cardiothorasic surgery and advancements to which our family received a benefit we will never be able to repay him for. If there is one doctor I would fly across the country if I had a heart issue, it is this guy.

His staff was always available and responded immediately. We never had to wait for an email response more than a few hours at most and someone always answered the phone. The day of the surgery, with covid rules, we were not able to be present. However, his nurse contacted us hourly updating us with what was happening and guiding us through each phase from afar.

Our family hopes that dr. Lamelas has continued success in his career and is able to save other families until his heart...

Dr Lamelas and team repaired my mitral valve 3 years ago now. I flew in from Maryland. Had my pre-meeting and pre-tests Thurs. Surgery Fri. Walked out on Mon. Had a follow up meeting Wed, and flew home that same Wed. Reading the surgical summary of my operation, it's just amazing the amount of work and adjustment my mitral valve leaflets required. But it seems to be a typical surgery for Dr Lamelas. I believe he does as many as 4 a day, 4 days a week, with patient meetings on Wednesdays! This high through put is probably why he doesn't have a really long waitlist like some other surgeons doing a few a week. It also means he has probably seen every possible variance in repairs, and is able to stay current like no one else. Immediately after my surgery, he called my family to give them an update. This was my 1st hospital visit ever at age 45, so I was very stressed but the team really was helpful in helping with my fear. They let me talk to a few former patients via phone, which was extremely comforting for me. How did I end up in Miami? Well, in Maryland the most experienced surgeon does mitral valve repair by cutting the sternum. That's a lot of post surgery recovery and leaves you very vulnerable. I asked my doctor-neighbor to find me a better option. He asked around his hospital and the cardiologists there said if they or a family member needed a valve repair their 1st choice would be Dr Lamelas. At 48 I'm able to do everything I want thanks to Dr Lamelas and team. Run 3+ miles, boating/water sports, pilot aircraft, ski, camp, hike, be active in my...

He told our family that our father's surgery was a success. It was not. My father never came out of a coma. Systems of his body that had never given him trouble gave out on him until we took him off of life support 2 1/2 months later. My father was 68 and able to take care of himself. I understand that he needed heart surgery and sometimes things don't go as planned, but the fact that Lamelas told our family he thought what he did was a success will stay with me for the rest of my life. It makes me all the more angry that the surgery took 7 hours rather than the 3.5 Lamelas told my father it would take. We still don't know why it took twice as long. I don't think that changing my father's surgery time at the last minute so that he had to get to the hospital at 4am was helpful. There was no reason given for that either and I am left to guess that my father was denied a good night's sleep the night before the surgery that killed him so Lamelas could have the afternoon off. After reviewing the records I found that Lamelas had punctured my father's lung during surgery. This helps explain why my father needed clots removed from his lungs everyday for the rest of his short life. I also found that he falsely told my father there was a 99% success rate. I wonder how many people he kills every year that he tells patients and collegues were a success when trying to induce them to let him get paid...