Editorial: Money well spent

Tuesday, March 23, 2004 | 8:46 a.m.

Former Nevada Assemblywoman Eileen Brookman learned from personal experience the hardship involved for Southern Nevada families who have had a member in need of a heart transplant. In 1989 her late son's life depended on a transplant and he was airlifted to the Phoenix Heart Institute. She lived in Phoenix for a year to be with him after the transplant. For the next five years of his life, she accompanied him on all of his out-of-state trips for follow-up care. In those days the Las Vegas area had fewer than a million people. Now, however, our population is 1.6 million and by 2010 it will be 2 million or more.

The 2003 Legislature acted none too soon in setting aside $1.5 million to begin the work associated with bringing a heart-transplant facility to Southern Nevada. As approved last week by the Board of Regents, which oversees the Nevada School of Medicine, $250,000 of that appropriation will be used to fund a study that will answer basic questions. What is the need here? What can the state afford? Will private businesses step forward with donations? Can there be a partnership among the School of Medicine and private surgeons and investors?

A heart-transplant facility would be a natural complement to the fledgling Nevada Cancer Institute, whose supporters are now raising funds with an eye toward an opening next year in the Summerlin area. Each facility would allow patients access to extended levels of care that are now available only at out-of-state facilities.

With more than 2,200 heart-transplant operations performed a year nationally, there is reason to believe the study will prove the need for a facility in Southern Nevada. If the need and affordability are shown, the remaining $1.25 million of the Legislature's outlay should be quickly approved for planning the facility. In an area the size of ours, people shouldn't have to leave the state to receive operations that are becoming almost routine in the nation's larger cities.