The Dorothy and Larry Dallas Heart Center

Every month, The Dorothy and Larry Dallas Heart Center team performs more than 20 operations, sometimes on babies weighing fewer than six pounds. These tiny humans require the utmost attention to detail by highly skilled cardiothoracic surgeons who use specialized tools.

One example is the microTEE (Transesophageal Echo) ultrasound imaging probe (seen to the left), a rare device only used by the top cardiothoracic teams in the country. This probe contains a camera and goes down a baby’s esophagus, giving doctors a close look at the heart, capturing every angle without making a single incision. Before the microTEE, a surface echocardiogram would take images of the heart through the chest wall. Now, our team can receive real-time 3D images to make the best diagnoses.