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With his heart unable to pump enough blood to meet the needs of his body and brain, Monte Lenz lost 70 pounds, could barely speak and had to use a walker in his attempts to get around. A 2015 heart transplant at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland gave the Medford resident and former Marine a new lease on life. But Lenz, now 68, is worried about follow-up care for patients with transplanted hearts and the fate of people still waiting for transplants. OHSU’s heart transplant program has collapsed after it lost several key physicians. “The doctors I’ve had up there have been absolutely wonderful,” Lenz said. “They work with you, talk with you and have a wonderful bedside manner. They get to be family, and we rely on them.” OHSU initially said it would suspend its heart transplant program for two weeks, but later extended the shutdown indefinitely. The hospital sent Lenz and other patients a message on Aug. 31 stating, “We regret to share the difficult news that OHSU chose today to extend the temporary inactivation of our Heart Transplant Program beyond the initial 14 days. We made this decision in the best interest of our patients. Due to physician departures as of Sept. 30, we will no longer have the specialists necessary to keep our program active.” OHSU said it is committed to rebuilding the program and is in the process of recruiting new heart-failure and transplant specialists. But for now, the program will not evaluate new patients to see whether they are candidates for heart transplant surgery. The hospital will not accept donor hearts or perform transplant surgeries on patients on the OHSU waiting list. Some patients awaiting hearts already have been referred to other programs. The University of Washington School of Medicine announced on Aug. 31 that it already had received eight patient referrals from OHSU. “Our primary commitment is to patients. A state line doesn’t mean we’re any less committed to people who live in Oregon than who live in Washington,” Dr. Daniel Fishbein, medical director for heart transplant and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said in a statement. “We are the closest transplant program to Oregon and we feel a great commitment to patients with advanced heart disease in the entire region.” In addition to halting heart transplants, OHSU also will stop implanting long-term heart pumps, such as ventricular assist devices, that serve as a bridge for patients awaiting a transplant, OHSU said in the letter to patients. Lenz, who was born with a heart murmur and later had two heart attacks, had a ventricular-assist device implanted to help his failing heart pump blood around his body. Although the device didn’t work well enough to keep him strong and healthy, it kept him alive long enough to get a heart transplant. Lenz said his favorite OHSU physician, Dr. Jill Gelow, left the hospital after she adopted a son but was denied permission to work fewer hours. The Lund Report, a nonprofit organization that reports on health news in Oregon, also reported she left after adopting a boy. Three other doctors are also leaving — including one who learned his contract might not be renewed and another frustrated by short-staffing, The Lund Report said. OHSU had 20 patients on its heart transplant waiting list and 327 patients in various stages of follow-up care, The Lund Report said. Lenz said he has been able to make arrangements to continue his follow-up care with Dr. Gelow, who has been hired by Providence Health & Services. He said he travels to the Portland area every four months for appointments to check on his heart and overall health. Lenz said heart transplant patients need care from cardiologists who are specialists in the transplant field. The specialists give guidance to their post-transplant patients on everything from dental procedures to what over-the-counter medications are safe to take. The specialists also monitor for any signs the patient’s body is rejecting the transplanted heart. Patients must take a large number of medications daily, he said. Lenz said the OHSU doctors know everything about the medical history of their patients. “Now you take them all away and bring in doctors you don’t know, that puts our well-being in jeopardy because they have not known what our history is,” he said. Lenz, who enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, said he will always be grateful for the care he has received and for the donor heart that beats in his chest. The heart came from a 36-year-old man with three children, he said. The heart transplant program does not share the names of recipients and donor families with each other, but Lenz said the kids have expressed a desire to meet him someday. In the meantime, he recorded the sound of their father’s heart and put the recording inside three teddy bears that he gave the children for Christmas. “It was something they could each hold onto individually,” Lenz said. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.