Joe DiMaggio Childrens Hospital Expands Cardiac Program

Dr. Thomas Forbes, an interventional cardiologist, has joined Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital as its chief of Pediatric Cardiac Services. Forbes, previously at Detroit Medical Center in Michigan, is leading an expanding roster of cardiac specialists as the Hollywood-based children’s facility significantly increases its size and capabilities while it adds four floors to the existing hospital building.

Forbes is an active researcher and teacher that received fellowship training at Baylor University’s College of Medicine. Recently, he collaborated with Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute to repair a sinus venosus atrial septal defect in an adult patient using stents in a transcatheter procedure. It is believed this is the first time this approach has been used in Florida to repair an issue previously only fixable through open-heart surgery.

In addition to Dr. Forbes, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Heart Institute, one of the top pediatric heart programs in the country, has added three other fellowship-trained physicians:

• Dr. Peter Guyon was part of the aforementioned procedure to repair the patient’s congenital heart defect. He was most recently at Rady Children’s Hospital and the University of California San Diego, where he completed a fellowship in pediatric cardiology. He specializes in interventional cardiology and earned his M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
• Dr. Jared Klein is a cardiac imaging specialist, focusing on both echocardiography and MRI. His advanced training in those areas came at Nemours Children’s Health in Delaware and Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic Hospital. He is a second-generation cardiologist.
• Dr. John Dentel is a cardiac surgeon that completed fellowships at Washington University/Seattle Children’s Hospital (congenital cardiac surgery) and Indiana University (cardiothoracic surgery).

The four doctors are members of the Memorial Physician Group and have joined the existing team of experts who offer a full range of congenital heart care, including heart transplantation. They will soon treat patients on a floor dedicated exclusively to cardiology when the expanded Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital opens later this year. The sixth floor will add a perioperative area for surgery patients, 20 intensive care beds, an operating room, a hybrid operating room, two catheterization labs, and procedure rooms with electrophysiology and interventional radiology capabilities. The new space will provide clinical teams a seamless environment to collaborate and efficiently care for critically-ill children, including those waiting for or recovering from a transplant.

Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital has been included among the nation’s top 50 for cardiology and heart surgery in the 2021-22 ranking of best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.