Lev Zak, RN is an extraordinary nurse and a wonderful person. He has an organic connection to his patients and really understands their need to be safe, have hope and get well. He faces the challenges of the critically ill and just "gets it all done". Lev gets to know his patients and their families really well. He appeals to their humanity and relates to their struggles to help his patients and their families recover.

Our LVAD patients have especially bloomed under Lev Zak's care. One of our LVAD's whose recovery to home time was only 14 days told me one day, that when he was finally starting to feel well and everything was working - was when he felt the most hopeless. He was feeling like he lost the life he knew and didn't know how he was going to find a new purpose. He said it was Lev Zak who gave him hope, who talked to him as a person, not just a patient. Lev showed him that while his old life was gone - his new life was his own to build. At our LVAD 1 year anniversary party this patient said it was this conversation that gave him the strength to emotionally face the road ahead.

Another one of the LVAD patients was struggling with a recent re-admission. His family didn't know how to help. While receiving the best possible care, the patient's wife said it was Lev Zak who pulled her husband back from a sadness that they could not help him with. It was Lev who allowed him to be sad, grumpy, all the while aiding him to self-care and recover his strength and believe that he would be well again.

Lev Zak is the first to help, to ask you about your day, your life; he talks Nursing and life with equal ease and remains pleasant throughout. He laughs with us, he mourns with us and he looks out for all of us.

Our Surgeons say everyone could use a dose of Lev Zak. I couldn't agree more.