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If you meet Dr. Richard Heuser for the first time and he isn't wearing his white lab coat, you might not guess he was a doctor.
His carefree attitude and youthful disposition belie his 53 years and volumes of published papers on cardiovascular research.
But when he's in the cardiac catheterization lab, it's all serious business.
Earlier this year, Heuser was named director of cardiovascular research at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix.
His practice, Phoenix Heart Center, is becoming so popular, Heuser is opening a second office in Chandler. After only a couple of minutes in his office*, it's easy to see his patients adore him.
He knows them all by name, and they know he cares just by the warm tone in his voice. They trust him and know their heart is in good hands.
Heuser has many firsts in cardiovascular research, but his greatest achievement was as the first doctor to treat heart attack patients in shock using angioplasty. He also used angioplasty to treat patients who had heart valve leakage at the time of their attack.
While a physician in New Mexico in 1985, Heuser published his work on the treatment. The procedure now is the standard.
"My team and I developed the first covered stent for treating patients," he says. "This device that we invented is used worldwide in all hospitals that perform angioplasty."
Most of his time is spent taking care of patients who have failed traditional therapies.
"If there is technology that we do not have available,...