Don Juan Carlos’ heart is in good hands. Dr Alberto Forteza Gil, head of cardiac surgery at Quirónsalud Madrid University Hospital and cardiovascular surgery at Puerta de Hierro Hospital, will perform surgery on the King Emeritus this Saturday. The open-chest operation, which is more serious than initially thought, will involve the placement of three bypasses.
Dr. Forteza was named one of the five best cardiovascular surgeons in Spain by Forbes magazine. A gifted student of the renowned Dr. Juan José Rufilanchas, Forteza is an expert in valve repair surgery, aorta surgery, coronary surgery without extracorporeal circulation, heart transplantation, circulatory assistance systems, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy surgery. This is not the first time that King Juan Carlos has chosen this healthcare centre to treat his health problems, although in this case it is to address a heart problem for the first time. The hospital also has an excellent cardiology department, headed by José Ángel Cabrera, a specialist in cardiac arrhythmias.
Forteza, a surgeon for more than twenty years, leads the team that performs the most heart transplants in Spain. Not surprisingly, the surgeon has been at the forefront of more than 4, 500 major cardiac surgeries with extracorporeal circulation, more than 350 aortic valve repair surgeries, more than 500 aortic root and aortic arch aneurysm surgeries, and more than 1,000 coronary surgeries without extracorporeal circulation.
Quironsalud Madrid University Hospital is a large hospital complex comprising seven different units and equipped with 21 operating theatres. The hospital was inaugurated by the Duke and Duchess of Lugo in 2006, when Dr Forteza was already a renowned cardiovascular surgeon with more than a decade of experience in cardiovascular surgery.
Musician before doctor
The surgeon trained at the Conservatory of Music in Salamanca, where he studied elementary music. He then studied medicine and surgery at the University of Salamanca, where he obtained a dozen honours degrees, and received his doctorate cum laude from his alma mater with a thesis supervised by José María González Santos.
Music, given his training, is usually present in his operating theatre. Several studies indicate that music in operating theatres can be a great ally for professionals’ concentration during this activity. In fact, evidence suggests ‘that carefully selected music (by the surgeon himself) can have a beneficial effect’ during specific stages of the procedure, says Jonathan Katz, professor of anaesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine.
Forteza’s training was completed with a stay in Paris in 2002 to train in endoscopic dissection of the radial artery, another in Harefield (2015) to improve his skills in Heartware ventricular assist device implantation and management, and another in Berlin (2016) to train in artificial heart implantation. He also spent time at hospitals in Minnesota and Hanover.
The King Emeritus’s heart is in good hands. During the procedure, his chest will have to be opened, so it will be open-heart surgery, which may involve extracorporeal circulation, meaning that Don Juan Carlos’s heart will have to be stopped.
Read the article in El Español
