In this episode Alin and Colby have a discussion with Tyler Chavez, a heart transplant recipient and surgical physician assistant. They discuss Tyler's incredible story of beating cancer as a child, his acute onset heart failure that saw him operating while getting IV medication infusions and discuss about the role of a physician assistant and the path to that career.

Tyler Chavez is a Certified Physician Assistant residing and working in the greater DC area. Completing the PA program at Duke University in 2012, he went on to complete the Physician Assistant Surgical Residency at Duke as well. He has been practicing for the last 12 years as a surgical PA. For the last 3 years he has been working for the Center for Plastic Surgery sharing his time equally between the operating room and time spent in clinic. In the OR the team focuses mostly on the plastic surgery component of breast reconstruction for women battling breast cancer. When outside of the OR he has founded and manages the Metabolic Aesthetics Clinic within the Center for Plastic Surgery where he is the Clinic Director. The clinic specializes in weight loss, healing, recovery, and longevity through the utilization of peptide therapy. Tyler grew familiar with the medical field at an early age while he was battling leukemia from
the ages of 2-6 years old. From this early time in his life, he was very interested in pursuing a career in medicine. After 31 years of his cancer in remission living a healthy active life suddenly was faced with the diagnosis of heart failure with an ejection fraction of about 5 percent. In a very short period of time, it was known that the medical management route was not going to be an option. One day he was in the Operating Room working with the surgical team to 4 days later being in the ICU on heart lung bypass. Through the amazing team at Inova Fairfax heart failure team, as quickly as this progressed, they worked tirelessly to get a new heart and a very
successful transplant. Now 8 months after transplant life has changed forever, but the new normal affords a healthy
and active life. He returned to work after just 2 months post-transplant and continues to share his time between the operating room and working in his busy outpatient clinic.

This episode is sponsored by Paragonix Technologies, an industry leader committed to protecting the gift of organ donation. To learn how Paragonix is reshaping the standard of care across transplantation to optimize patient outcomes, visit paragonix.com.

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Interview with heart transplant recipient Tyler Chavez, PA

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