News

When Marcy Lagarde, 42, of Raymore, Missouri, felt sudden excruciating pain in her left arm and had trouble lying down she Headshot of 42-year-old Marcy Lagarde wearing sunglasses and white sleeveless top. BJC patient, Marcy Lagarde, 42 knew something wasn’t right. Marcy has Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition that weakens the body’s connective tissue. Because she has been under the care of Alan Braverman, MD, a WashU Medicine cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and world-leading expert in Marfan syndrome, she knew that the condition put her at an increased risk for cardiovascular issues—but she never expected to face one so suddenly.

As we begin the new year, I am filled with gratitude for the enormous contributions our faculty, staff and trainees have made, providing outstanding care for patients, performing groundbreaking research and delivering exceptional educational programs. This has not been an easy year. We have dealt with many challenges including a tornado that impacted many in our community, policy changes negatively impacting research funding and healthcare, budget restrictions and threats to our cherished values of diversity, equity and inclusive excellence.

At 82 years old, Lois Miles was one of the first patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital to receive a transcatheter tricuspid valve implant, a groundbreaking procedure performed in 2024. It’s one more way the hospital and its academic physician partner, WashU Medicine, are helping patients with valve disease. For years, Lois’ leaky tricuspid valve caused blood to flow backward in her heart. She also had atrial fibrillation, a condition that caused her heart to beat too fast, adding even more complexity to her case. She often felt short of breath, became full quickly when eating, and just didn’t feel right.

“The tower represents the newest chapter in the covenant between our institutions and the people we serve,” said David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and the George and Carol Bauer Dean of WashU Medicine. “For years, Barnes-Jewish Hospital has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading hospitals and a vital safety net provider.

Nancy Sweitzer, MD, PhD, Director of Clinical Research for the Division of Cardiology and Vice Chair of Clinical Research for the Department of Medicine was named in a recent article by Becker’s ASC Review as one of 5 Cardiology Leaders to Watch in 2025.

When Ashley Brooks, RN, BSN, was born, the first hint her parents received that something was out of the ordinary was that nurses didn’t bring their infant daughter from the nursery to their room when it was time to eat. She had been taken to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Something was different about Ashley’s heart, but physicians didn’t quite know what. Answers finally came when Ashley was 4 and doctors diagnosed her with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a heart condition in which the heart muscle is too stiff to pump blood properly. Ashley’s childhood, however, was pretty normal—until she turned 18. That year, while she was a senior in high school, she had a stroke, and her doctors decided it was time for her to get on the wait list for a heart transplant. Over the course of two years, her condition worsened, and in 2005, when she was 20, Ashley got the call. There was a heart ready for her.