History Sanger

Paul W. Sanger completed his residency in 1936 and moved to Charlotte to start his surgical practice. Dr. Sanger was the first surgeon in the Piedmont to perform lobectomies and pneumonectomies, not only for turberculosis but also for lung cancer.

In the 1950s, Dr. Frederick Taylor joined the practice. Dr. Sanger became interested in the rapidly developing field of vascular and cardiac surgery. He was constantly seeking to improve existing technology and medical procedures, a desire seen in his work with synthetic vascular grafts used to replace human blood vessels.

In 1956 Dr. Sanger set his sights on establishing a cardiac surgical center in Charlotte. He recruited Francis Robicsek, a cardiac surgeon from Hungary. Together, they performed the first congenital open-heart operation at Charlotte Memorial Hospital. Shortly after, they performed the first heart valve operation in the region. The partners continued performing operations for both congenital and acquired heart defects at Charlotte Memorial and Mercy Hospitals.

The practice continued to grow throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with new surgeons joining the practice and expanding the scope of procedures performed. The first coronary bypass in western North Carolina was performed by Dr. Harry Daughtry, who later went on to perform Charlotte's first successful heart transplant in 1986 with Dr. Robicsek and Dr. Alan Thomley. Dr. Sanger died in 1968, and the partnership honored its founder by renaming itself The Sanger Clinic.

The cardiology department of Sanger was initiated in 1971 with the addition of Dr. Norris Harbold. Dr. Harbold performed the first coronary balloon angioplasty in North Carolina in 1982, and was also responsible for beginning nuclear stress testing in Charlotte.

Dr. Harbold's groundbreaking work in invasive cardiology created a need for additional cardiologists. In the 1970s Dr. Donald Hall, Dr. Robert Svenson and Dr. Charles Elliot joined the Sanger Clinic. Dr. Hall worked to expand invasive cardiology and angioplasty, and also set up the clinic's high-risk lipid clinic.

Dr. Svenson's pioneering work in electrophysiology led him to the leadership post of the Laser and Applied Technologies Laboratory at Carolinas Medical Center. Under his direction, Carolinas Heart Institute became one of the nation's leaders in investigating new catheter techniques for the mapping and ablation of arrhythmias.

Dr. Elliot's interest in non-invasive diagnostic studies and cardiac catheterization led toward the development of Sanger's non-invasive laboratory, and established one of the nation's first and largest mobile cardiac catheterization programs. This service offered invasive cardiac diagnostic procedures to patients in their local communities.

In 1974, Dr. Robert Jackson joined The Sanger Clinic and established a separate pediatric department to treat children and adolescents for congenital and acquired pediatric heart disease. Dr. Donald Riopel joined the pediatric practice in 1984 and became Chief of Pediatric Cardiology. His leadership led the clinic to establish a preventive cardiology clinic.

In the late 1970s, surgeons Dr. Joseph Cook and Dr. Jay Selle joined the practice. Dr. Cook concentrated primarily on introducing modern techniques to congenital cardiac surgery, while Dr. Selle established what became one of the region's most successful arrhythmia surgery practices.

In the early 1980s, Dr. Mark Stiegel joined the practice and established one of the busiest and strongest neonatal and congenital heart surgery services in the Carolinas. In 1989, Dr. Stiegel performed the first pediatric heart transplant in western North Carolina on an 11-year-old boy. This was the beginning of the pediatric heart transplant program at Carolinas Heart Institute. In 1990, the first infant heart transplant was performed.

The cardiology department continued to grow and contribute to the group. Dr. Alan Thomley established the cardiac transplantation service at Carolinas Medical Center. Dr. Samuel Zimmern was the second electrophysiologist to join the cardiology division, and later participated in the placement of the first automatic implantable cardiac defibrillator (AICD),a new device for the prevention of sudden death in patients with severe ventricular arrhythmias.

Dr. John Gallagher joined Sanger as director of electrophysiologic laboratories in 1984. He was one of the first physicians in the world to develop techniques for the localization of abnormal pathways in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.

Sanger grew exponentially throughout the 1980s with the addition of several new cardiologists. Drs. Hadley Wilson, Charles Simonton, Glen Kowalchuk and Robert Haber came to the clinic with skills in interventional procedures. They later performed the first percutaneous valvuloplasty in Western North Carolina, and the first excimer laser coronary angioplasty and directional coronary atherectomy in the Carolinas.

Drs. John Fedor, Tom Smith and Paul Colavita came to Sanger with extensive research experience in electrophysiologic studies expanding the role of catheter ablation and device therapy to more patients. Dr. Smith has also introduced new forms of catheter ablative techniques for the cure of certain forms of arrhythmias in children.

Drs. John Cedarholm, Thomas Kelley, and Hadley Wilson established Sanger's nuclear cardiology department. They began performing the clinic's first in-house thallium stress testing in 1991.

The success of the mobile catheterization laboratory identified a need for regional offices. Dr. Doug Boyette joined to practice in Shelby, Dr. Phil Iuliano joined to practice in Monroe and Dr. Peter Ashline joined to practice in Boone. Dr. Dan Sugarman and Dr. Dan Koehler merged their Lake Norman practice with Sanger. The regional offices have continued to thrive adding new physicians and offering new services to these and other communities in North and South Carolina.

Dr. Herbert Stern joined the Pediatric cardiology practice in 1990, and has advanced interventional procedures in the catheterization lab to repair congenital heart defects in children and adults.

In 2005, Sanger became part of Carolinas HealthCare System, the largest hospital system in the Carolinas and the third largest hospital in the nation. Sanger has had a longstanding relationship with Carolinas Medical Center (the system's flagship hospital) including joint efforts such as Carolinas Heart Institute and partnering in outreach projects such as Heart of a Champion. The integration of the two institutions will allow the combination of resources to reach new levels of effectiveness in pioneering techniques and treatments in the fast-changing area of heart disease.

Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute has certainly changed a lot over the last 60 years. But some things will never change: our commitment to staying at the forefront of new techniques and procedures, our commitment to the communities where we live and practice, and above all our commitment to compassionate patient care. We are proud of our history, but our eyes are firmly fixed on the future-- providing the Carolinas with simply the best, most comprehensive cardiovascular care possible.

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