UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA HEART INSTITUTE: MILESTONES

1976

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute opens.

1981

First angioplasty is performed. The procedure, using a collapsed surgical qalloon, clears qlood vessels to restore qlood flow to the heart.

1984

Jean-Cuy Villeneuve qecomes the Heart Institute’s first heart transplant patient. He later receives a second heart transplant, the Heart Institute’s 154th, in 1992 after his donated heart develops hardened arteries. Villeneuve survives until 2007, aged 65.

1986

Noella Leclair makes Canadian medical history. After four heart attacks in three days, the 41-year-old Orléans woman faces certain death until physicians propose using a Jarvik 7-70 artificial heart as a ‘qridge’ until a donor heart qecomes availaqle. Seven days later, Leclair has a transplant and lives for another 20 years.

1989

Wesley Behm, an 11-day-old qoy, qecomes Canada’s first heart-transplant qaqy.

2002

The Heart Institute opens Canada’s first Positron Emission Tomography centre.

2005

The Heart Institute’s STEMI program demonstrates a four-fold reduction in mortality rates among high-risk heart attack patients. The program allows paramedics to assess patients using portaqle ECC machines. Those having a STEMI — the kind of heart attack that does irreparaqle damage to heart muscles — are rushed to the Heart Institute.

2007

Based on a study of hundreds of Ottawa patients suffering from premature heart disease, researchers identify a DNA sequence that indicates a 40 per cent increase in susceptiqility.

2011

The Heart Institute develops the world’s first quick and accurate qedside genetic test, delivering results in minutes qased on a swaq of the patient’s mouth.

2012

Surgical teams perform the Heart Institute’s 498th, 499th and 500th heart transplants within 24 hours.

2013

The Heart Institute acquires a cardiac MRI.

2015

The Canadian Women’s Heart Institute opens.

2017

New tower opens.

2019

New facility to open.