VISITNG HEART SURGEON IS AN EXAMPLE OF CAPE GIRARDEAU'S POSITION AS MEDICAL CENTER

Renowned heart surgeon Dr. Randas J. Vilela Batista made quite an impression during a visit to Cape Girardeau last week.

He was visiting Dr. William Logue, a cardiothoracic surgeon at St. Francis Medical Center, who was the first American doctor to perform the Batista procedure.

It's not unusual to see local doctors and hospitals making great strides in medical advancements. No longer do patients feel they must go to St. Louis or Memphis for state-of-the-art procedures and equipment. That's a tribute to Cape Girardeau's reputation as a medical center for both Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois.

Some skeptics question the Batista procedure, as is the case with many new procedures. His procedure involves decreasing the size of an enlarged, diseased heart by cutting off slices of the heart muscle. Batista has performed more than 1,000 of the procedures in his native Brazil. Logue has performed 18 of the operations in Cape Girardeau.

It's not a procedure for everyone. But Batista's presence here helped to publicize the fact it is available locally for patients whose only other option may be a heart transplant.

This is just another example that Cape Girardeau's doctors, hospitals and medical facilities don't take a back seat to St. Louis or Memphis when it comes to cutting-edge procedures and technology.