NCH Rooney Heart Institute: Joseph Lamelas, MD

Checkout Baylor Hospital lawsuit involving Joseph Lamelas, MD and other surgeons. To say the least, this is unsettling. How many patients at the most vulnerable time of their lives would use the services of a surgeon that prioritizes quantity over quality? I wouldn't want that from car mechanic let alone a cardiothoracic surgeon.

He literally saved my life. I couldn't breathe, I was constantly exhausted, I had no strength to walk, and I could no longer eat (I lost 47 pounds and weighed only 140 pounds before the surgery). Climbing stairs was impossible for me, and being outdoors in temperatures above 90degF left me utterly desperate. I had even prepared my last will, as I had seen over 23 doctors across the United States and none of them ever understood what was wrong with me. They just filled me with medications but never solved the root of the problem. Someone gave me his name -- he was my last hope. I went in for a consultation, and he immediately told me he knew exactly what the issue was. We scheduled the heart surgery for September 2, 2024. It was an eight-hour procedure, during which he operated on four areas of my heart and fixed them. When I woke up, the doctor was there explaining what he had done. He told me, "It will take about 8 to 10 weeks for your chest to fully recover, but in two weeks you'll already start to feel better." It has now been eight months since that day, and today I can run for an hour under the sun, bike for three hours, and I've returned to training at the gym. I could go on for hours describing how reborn I feel after the surgery performed by Dr. Lamelas. God bless you.

Dr. Lamelas replaced my aortic valve on Dec.17, 2024. The entire process, from my first meeting with Dr. Lamelas and Shay Lamelas, through the actual procedure was clearly explained to me. The entire Dr. Lamelas team were professional, kind, and made me feel that everything was going to be fine. I feel blessed that Dr. Lamelas did the surgery. I am now in my fifth week of recovery. I am feeling a lot better than I did prior to the surgery. I want to thank Shay Lamelas for always being there for me. No matter what time I contact her she responds immediately. Her support has been a critical part of my recovery. I also want to thank the entire office and hospital teams for helping me get through this procedure. Last a big thank you to Dr. Lamelas. You are simply the best. Your minimally invasive heart surgery is beyond words. You always made me feel confident that I had the best surgeon to preform this surgery, and that you were going to fix my broken heart. Joel Strauss

Dr. Lamelas saved my life and I will be forever grateful for him and his amazing team! I am a year past my surgery now and feeling great!

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 to do surgery.