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SALISBURY, MD---In recognition of American Heart Month, PAC 14 returns to the operating room for its third recorded-live surgical procedure. Viewers have the unique opportunity to be part of a heart surgery performed by Dr. Kurt Wehberg at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. The operation premiers on the public access channel’s Focus on Health program 8 p.m. Friday, February 9.

“Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of American men and women today,” said Dr. Wehberg, a nationally recognized cardio-thoracic surgeon at Peninsula Regional Medical Center’s Peninsula Heart Center. “Heart surgery has proven to save more lives than any other form of treatment.”

As part of the continuing series, PAC 14’s cameras take viewers into the state-of-the-art operating room for a close-up look at a coronary artery bypass graft surgery, or CABG. During the procedure, one or more blocked coronary arteries are bypassed by a blood vessel graft to restore normal blood flow to the heart.

The grafts come from the patient's own arteries and veins located in the chest, leg or arm. It goes around the clogged artery (or arteries) to create new pathways for oxygen-rich blood to flow to the heart. The surgery includes an endoscopic vein harvest from the patient’s leg. A small camera is used to help find and retrieve veins that are then used on the heart.

This 90-minute procedure, was preceded by a gallbladder removal filmed by PAC 14 last spring, as well as a knee operation that was the first surgery of any kind to be recorded at Peninsula Regional Medical Center for public broadcast.

Produced by Dr. Mary DiBartolo of Salisbury University’s Nursing Department and Creig Twilley of PAC 14, Focus on Health has covered community health issues on PAC 14 for the past six years. PAC 14 is operated as a partnership between SU, the City of Salisbury and Wicomico County.

For more information call 410-677-5014 or for additional air times, visit the PAC 14 Web site at and click “Programming.”