Purpose in Practice: Walking with patients through life’s most critical moments

ORLANDO, Fla. — Patients and families facing advanced heart or lung disease often need more than medical expertise alone. They are searching for clarity, reassurance and a care team willing to walk closely with them through some of life’s most critical moments.

Dr. Stacy Mandras brings that level of care to life every day as a transplant cardiologist and director of AdventHealth’s Pulmonary Hypertension Program. Her approach centers on caring for the whole-person — body, mind and spirit — a purpose that guides how she practices and shows up for patients and families. Each April, her work feels especially meaningful during National Donate Life Month, which honors the life-saving gift of organ donation and the renewed lives it makes possible.

“I’m the doctor who hugs her patients. If they’re crying, I’m crying with them. If they’re praying, I pray with them,” said Dr. Mandras. “When patients need someone to stand beside them during the hardest moments of their lives, that’s where I’m meant to be.”

Dr. Mandras knew early on that medicine was where she belonged. Long before medical school, she spent her childhood with toy stethoscopes and games of Operation, driven by a belief that helping others heal was her calling. That calling led her to transplant cardiology, where she helps patients with complex heart disease navigate life-saving options such as a heart transplant or advanced heart support, including left ventricular assist devices (LVADs).

“These conversations are often life-changing,” she said. “We help patients understand how sick they are, whether advanced therapies are right for them, and what that path forward may look like, not just medically, but personally.”

In addition to advanced heart failure care, Dr. Mandras helps patients with pulmonary hypertension, a rare condition that affects the blood vessels of the lungs and puts added strain on the heart, often requiring careful diagnosis and long-term management. Across all of her work, how care is delivered matters just as much as the medicine itself.

“I believe there are three things that help people get through anything,” she said. “The physical strength to fight, a reason to keep going — often the people you love — and faith.”

That philosophy also shapes how she works with fellows and residents in AdventHealth’s Graduate Medical Education program, modeling presence, compassion and patient-centered care for the next generation of physicians.

Those values were forged early in her training. As a resident, Dr. Mandras cared for a young woman who went into severe heart failure shortly after giving birth. The care team placed the patient on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) — a form of life support that temporarily takes over the work of the heart and lungs — to stabilize her condition. Later, she received a ventricular assist device and, ultimately, a heart transplant. Not long after, Dr. Mandras recalls seeing that same patient walking through the hospital — healthy and with her child.

“That was the moment it all clicked,” she said. “Seeing what’s possible when patients are given a second chance — that’s what shaped my career.”

Today, AdventHealth offers advanced ECMO care through one of the largest ECMO programs in the Southeast, supporting patients with the most complex heart and lung conditions.

Those experiences continue to guide how Dr. Mandras shows up for patients.

“It’s a privilege to meet people when they’re going through their sickest time and help shepherd them through that process,” she said. “Being present for patients and their families — and then seeing what they’re able to do afterward — is incredibly rewarding.”

Patients and families can learn more about transplant care and advanced heart failure services here.

Explore more stories from our Purpose in Practice series.