Fermin C. Garcia, MD, is no stranger to landing on a “Top Doctors” list, but in January, he was surprised and humbled to learn that AL DÍA News had recognized him as one of their top 12 medical leaders of Latino descent in the tri-state area.
“This is a great honor; it really means so much. When I came to this country more than 20 years ago, my dream was to work in an excellent academic hospital, learn from the best, and become a great physician. At Penn, I’m proud to be part of a team that appreciates my background and welcomes my contributions to research, education, and patient care,” Garcia said.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, to Cuban parents, Garcia earned his medical degree at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He moved to the United States to continue his training, completing his residency and fellowship at Albert Einstein Medical Center in 2004. He then pursued a Cardiac Electrophysiology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Now the director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at Pennsylvania Hospital, co-director of the Ventricular Tachycardia Treatment Center of Excellence at HUP, and an associate professor of Medicine, Garcia has established himself as an expert at performing complex cardiac catheter ablations (minimally invasive procedures that “burn” tissue that lets incorrect electrical signals cause abnormal heartbeats, or arrhythmia) and using advanced technologies to care for patients who have unsuccessfully sought treatment elsewhere.
“Our patients are often active, otherwise healthy people who become incapacitated by their arrhythmias. For example, I did an ablation on a 21-year old woman, and afterward, she sent me a picture of her hiking at the Grand Canyon,” Garcia said. He also recently received a letter from a young patient’s mother. The boy experienced frequent shocks from his implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a small device in his chest that monitored his abnormal heart rhythm. Therapies, medications, and the ICD had all failed, and his family started to worry he would need a heart transplant. But Garcia recognized that the problem was coming from a particularly challenging area of the heart.
“Because we’d investigated this area and have the most experience fixing it in the country, we brought him to the electrophysiology suite. Two years later, he’s healthy, and he’s going to college,” he said. “Being able to improve my patients’ quality of life and give them hope when there’s not much left has been the most fulfilling aspect of my career.”
In addition to his clinical work, Garcia’s extensive research has touched on topics like treating atypical atrial flutters, sudden cardiac death, ventricular arrhythmias in normal hearts, and the impact of discontinuing blood thinners after treatment for atrial fibrillation. Last summer, he also was among the authors of a Penn study that suggested cardiac arrests and arrhythmias suffered by some critically ill COVID-19 patients are likely triggered by a severe, systemic form of the disease. The study was published in Heart Rhythm Journal, the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society. Garcia also serves as the society’s ambassador for Latin America.
Garcia is also deeply invested in training and mentoring cardiac electrophysiologists around the world, and particularly those from Central and South America. He has presented at conferences, welcomed visiting physicians into his lab to observe cases, and even performed cases live for a virtual audience of his peers, all in an effort to expand the field’s collective knowledge.
“I strive to be a role model for those physicians who are courageous enough to follow their dreams like I did,” Garcia said. “I want to encourage the younger generations — and especially those of Latino and minority origins — to be proud of your heritage and background, to trust in your knowledge, and to push the limits of imagination because everything is possible.”