Fishing from the bank, visiting with the grandkids, helping with chores around the house—whatever he does and wherever he goes, Bruce L. Graham is accompanied by a clicking 28-pound machine that powers his ventricular assist device. The retired Texas oilman admits the sound bugged him at first. But now the clicks are comforting. They mean the VAD implanted in his chest is still busy doing its job: keeping him alive.

Graham’s cardiologist Dr. Mary Beth Cishek, medical director of the Heart Specialty Care and Transplant Center at Seton Medical Center in Austin, is proud of her patient’s progress with the VAD since nearly succumbing to congestive heart failure about a year ago. Such success stories have bolstered her belief that a brave bionic future might be just around the corner.

“I’m convinced that 20 years from now, maybe sooner, transplant surgeons won’t be dependent on human donor hearts at all but using artificial ones instead,” says the cardiologist who has been with Seton (the only hospital in Central Texas that does heart transplants) for some 13 years now.

And just think what artificial hearts could mean, she continues enthusiastically. Patients would no longer have to face those frustrating waits, hoping that their names will come up on the list in time. Heart doctors and transplant surgeons would no longer have to deal with so many roadblocks in patient care and, best of all, hundreds of lives could be saved. The possibilities—no, make that probabilities—are exciting. But so far, they’re just a dream and the struggle to find enough donor organs to meet the need goes on.

As things stand today 30 percent of the patients on the heart-donor waiting list will die before an organ becomes available. In fact, one of Cishek’s major challenges is keeping heart patients well enough and around long enough to benefit from transplants. And that’s where ventricular assist devices that help the heart to function come in. They’re good as a temporary bridge to transplantation and some are even being used on a permanent basis in a program called Destination Therapy for patients who, for one reason or another, aren’t donor candidates.

Cishek is grateful for the technology, a hopeful harbinger of even better things to come. She’s also encouraging more people to make a donor commitment.

Donating is easy to do, according to the cardiologist. Just click on www.donatelifetexas.org. Then download an application which, once sent to the Texas Registry database, automatically records your intentions. But be forewarned: There’s a very small window of opportunity between an individual being declared brain dead and the time that a heart can be retrieved for transplantation, so be sure family members know your wishes. Loved ones need to be aware of intentions and the registry in order to follow through on your behalf, the doctor emphasizes. They need to know about your life-saving gift in advance.

Saving lives or making them better through medicine was part of Mary Beth Cishek’s upbringing. Born 45 years ago in Wheeling, Ill., she spent her early days in Chicago. Her mother, Dorothy, was a nurse. A sister, Ellen, decided to be a neurosurgeon and now has a private practice in Augusta, Ga. But it was cardiology that “spoke” to Cishek the minute she started taking biology classes and studied the totally amazing human heart.

“The heart is just so cool,” she declares enthusiastically. “It’s constantly working and keeping us going. You know, some body parts just sort of sit there and some we can get by without if we have to, but not the heart. You gotta have one.”

Hearts have intrigued mankind since ancient times and have been endlessly stylized and poeticized. Every Valentine’s Day, they show up on cards and candy. But the real thing doesn’t resemble those lacy images very much. Weighing between 7 and 15 ounces, the real heart has four rather unromantic-looking chambers and squishy-seeming valves and ventricles through which blood is circulated. It beats about 100,000 times and pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood every day, scientists say, and expands and contracts maybe 3.5 billion times during a long lifespan. Little wonder that inventors have had such a struggle mimicking it mechanically!

Paul Winchell is credited with inventing and patenting the first artificial heart in the 1950s. Dr. Robert Jarvik’s mechanical marvel made headlines in the 1980s, keeping a Seattle dentist alive for 112 days. Subsequently, improved and promising models have appeared sustaining life longer. But to date, a perfect and permanent organ remains elusive, just a bit beyond science’s reach.

Has Cishek ever thought about getting involved in the quest? And, for that matter, has she ever considered being a transplant surgeon? Her answer to both questions is a definite, “No.”

“I love what I’m doing right now,” she explains. “Looking after the patient pre-op and post-op, discussing each case with the staff and accessing whether a transplant truly will benefit the individual—I think that’s what I’m best suited for...what I trained for and can do best.”

Her medical training began at St. Louis University where she graduated magna cum laude in biology and then went on to earn her medical degree at the institution’s school of medicine. Post doctoral training included a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at the University of California at Davis in Sacramento, Calif., where she also earned a research fellowship in cardiovascular physiology.

From 1996 to 1997, she served as an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Section of Heart Failure/Transplant at St. Louis University School of Medicine. A move to Austin followed where the cardiologist opened a private practice and assumed the position she currently holds, the medical directorship of Seton’s Heart Specialty Care and Transplant Center.

In December 2009 the cardiologist joined the Seton staff as an “official and fulltime employee,” retaining her same title and essentially the same duties.

So, how will her new position be beneficial?

Charlotte Thrasher, vice president and CEO of Seton Medical Center Austin, explains that Dr. Cishek already is well recognized in the medical community as a very talented cardiologist and leader in her field. And now the doctor will be able to build on that reputation by working even more closely with the staff, thus helping the transplant center to grow and Austin to gain in significance as a medical hub.

Liz Murrah, administrative director of the Heart Specialty Care and Transplant Center, thinks Cishek’s passion for medicine will set a great example for others at the hospital. “I’ve never met a physician more dedicated, and she’s wonderful at mentoring advanced-practice nurses—a natural born teacher,” Murrah says. “The doctor’s expertise and ability to work with our multi-disciplinary teams will continue to put us on the map.”

Above all, though, it’s her colleague’s enthusiasm that impresses the transplant center’s administrative director. “It’s refreshing how Mary Beth energizes everyone she’s around with her spunk and vigor,” Murrah points out.

Dr. Michael C. Mueller, the surgical director of Seton’s heart transplant program and the surgeon who implanted patient Bruce Graham’s VAD, agrees that Cishek’s energy and expertise are inspiring, adding that he especially appreciates her willingness to listen to other opinions when conferring on a case and her ability to handle and often defuse stressful situations.

There’s no denying that Cishek’s job can sometimes be stressful. To cope, she schedules a little R&R whenever possible and goes home to hang out with the family, which includes husband, Bryan, a civil engineer in real estate and children, Jack, 6, and little Andrew, just 9 months old. They often go bike riding, enjoying fun and relaxing moments together, and then it’s back to work with a rejuvenated attitude and outlook.

The physician comments on how it would be healthy if more people took little breaks like that. Americans are notorious workaholics, in her opinion, and though having a strong work ethic is certainly commendable, taking time off once in a while to just smell the roses is good for the soul and the spirit, which can keep the body healthier in the long run.

And speaking of staying healthy, the cardiologist is concerned about all the over-stressed, out- of- shape and sickly people she sees these days. Hypertension, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes are running rampant, the cardiologist regretfully notes, and they can contribute to or aggravate already existing heart disease. Get those checkups, she urges. Don’t forget to take your meds if you need them and, above all, strive for a sensible lifestyle. Low-fat diets are a good beginning. Get the right amount of sleep and adequate exercise, too. As for cigarette smoking, just say no. Don’t tempt fate, the doctor warns.

Her model patient, Mr. Graham, appreciates such frankness whenever he visits from San Angelo. Telling it like it is to him and everyone she treats, Cishek’s honesty and way of making patients partners in their medical care impresses the man on the clicking machine.

“She’s always telling me not to waste time worrying about what I can’t do like lifting and driving but to do what I can with my VAD and enjoy each day,” he reflects. “It goes to show how much she cares about her patients and how they’re getting along…we’re people not just cases to her.”

Or to put it another way: Mary Beth Cishek is a cool cardiologist with a very warm heart.