Cardiothoracic and Vascular Care (hearts, lungs and blood vessels)

Cardiovascular and Respiratory Care (hearts, lungs and blood vessels)

The Cardiovascular and Thoracic Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) is a vital part of Auckland City Hospital’s Cardiovascular Services, and it is also part of the largest cardiothoracic surgery unit in Australasia.

When you support Cardiovascular Care, you’re not just supporting a hospital unit, you’re supporting a lifesaving team that cares for the hearts and lungs of critical patients from across New Zealand.

The team’s impact

In the last year alone, the Cardiovascular team has:

Treated the hearts of 1,000 New Zealanders
Treated 800 sets of lungs, including those with cancer
Performed 40 heart or lung transplants on Kiwis nationwide
Performed around 2,600 interventional cardiology procedures
Provided mechanical life support to 55 people, using ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation), a miracle machine that does the job of their heart and lungs when their own cannot keep them alive
Seen 112 new patients at Hearty Towers and catered to 20,000 patient clinic visits.

This team is the lifeline for every New Zealander facing critical heart and lung conditions. Why?

Auckland City Hospital is New Zealand’s only provider of heart and lung transplants
Our Cardiovascular team is New Zealand’s only provider of life-saving ECMO therapy
It is the national provider for complex interventional cardiology procedures

Your donation can support the Cardiovascular team in saving more lives, nationwide.

Supporting this incredible team will improve what’s possible for future surgical and transplant patients, cardiology patients, or patients with severe heart and lung failure who need ECMO to survive.

Supporter highlights so far

Over $174,500 has been donated in the last four years towards advancing cardiovascular care

NZ’s first supine bike in an ICU has been funded to help rehabilitate bed-bound CVICU patients

Surgical instruments have been funded to meet the growing demand for minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Let’s support the team that keeps our hearts and lungs alive.

Patients nationwide are brought here for the best possible care; its lifesaving impact has no boundary. Beyond what government funding provides, the team relies on us for advanced equipment, technology, and resources that empower them to perform at their highest potential.

Donate

featured STAFF SPOTLIGHT

A word with Cardiovascular Director Malcolm Underwood

We take you into the heart of Cardiovascular Care at Auckland City Hospital.

Cardiovascular Director, Malcolm Underwood, shares his insights into advancements happening here and around the world, which are transforming heart and lung care.

Malcolm reveals his team’s mission to improve patient outcomes for New Zealand’s critical heart and lung patients, and he explains how extra funds could make a big difference.

See Malcolm in the spotlight here

More staff spotlights

Get to know the people at the forefront of Auckland City Hospital's world-class Cardiovascular team.

Meet the leaders of National Lead Extraction

Dr Nigel Lever and Dr Andrew Martin discuss their lifesaving work and share how we can help.

Caring for New Zealand’s most critical patients: Q&A

We go inside the CVICU at Auckland City Hospital with Intensivist, Bevan Vickery.

Breaking barriers in heart transplants, with Dr. Amul Sibal

The latest advancements in transplant medicine, including the game-changing Heart in a Box.

See all staff spotlights so far

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Simulation and transplant advancements

Donations will support technology that best improves outcomes for patients facing life-threatening, often time-critical, heart and lung conditions; such as the latest and greatest simulation training equipment or game-changing advancements in heart transplants.

New SimMan 3G Critical Care, for example, is the world’s most advanced patient simulator for emergency care procedures but sits beyond government budgets. SimMan would enable Cardiovascular teams to train for every possible emergency scenario in lifelike, risk-free settings; gaining critical care skills without having to travel abroad.

State-of-the-art transplant technology, such as Heart in a Box (XVIVO Heart Assist Transport device), could help save the lives of more heart transplant patients nationwide enabling donor hearts to come from overseas thanks to a ground-breaking heart preservation method. Sitting outside the scope of government funding, technology like this relies on us.

News in Cardiovascular Care

Catch up on the incredible work happening in Auckland City Hospital’s world-class Cardiovascular team.

The new heart surgery method helping patients recover faster

Listen to Dr Christine Goh on RNZ, sharing the results of minimally invasive heart valve surgeries.

He breathes, cries, bleeds, sweats, talks, and screams

SimMan 3G allows the team to train for every life-threatening scenario in a risk-free “real-life” setting.

Sharper vision, better outcomes: cutting-edge camera

Thanks to generous gifts, our cardiothoracic operating theatres are now equipped with a HDC-300.

The Lindsay Foundation’s lifesaving gift for heart patients

We are incredibly grateful for the Lindsay Foundation’s generous donation to our Cardiovascular team.

Another NZ-first vascular service

A New Zealand first, mobile nurse-led vascular service has hit the road in Northland.

Relief for respiratory patients

Family’s further donation to hospital will help give MND patients more freedom.

Pioneering heart device saving lives

Kiwi runs half marathon after Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) keeps him alive for heart transplant.

Helping patients breathe easy

Hospital’s Respiratory team is grateful for family’s donation to aid others’ breathing.

Meet the patients

Auckland City Hospital’s CVICU and wider Cardiovascular teams have introduced us to some resilient and inspiring people who have experienced first-hand the teams’ commitment and care – helping them survive and thrive.

The HOPE Box brings a lifesaving heart to Taylor

Taylor had a heart transplant when he was just 17 years old, with a donor heart brought from Australia.

Yvonne gives comfort to fellow patients

I now have two birthdays, one for me, and one for my heart and kidney I feel so lucky.

Paul breathes new life thanks to specialist care

“It’s still sinking in how fortunate we are,” says Paul, from his bed at Auckland City Hospital.