Surgeons from Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Coral Gables, Fla.-based Baptist Health, and Miami-based Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Institute partnered to perform Florida’s first pediatric robotic-assisted atrial septal defect repair.
The procedure was led by Davis Kalfa, MD, chief of cardiovascular surgery and co-director of the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Institute, according to a Sept. 1 news release from Baptist Health.
Tom Nguyen, MD, system chief medical executive of Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care and director of minimally invasive surgery at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, and Makoto Hashimoto, MD, cardiac surgeon at Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and director of robotic cardiac surgery at Miami-based Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, also participated in the procedure.
Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Heart Institute first partnered earlier in 2026 when they collaborated to treat a 73-year-old patient diagnosed with “cor triatriatum,” an extremely rare congenital heart defect commonly identified and treated in childhood, the release said.
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