PERSONNEL: JOINS ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER HEART INSTITUTE

Dr. John Wiggans has joined St. Francis Medical Center as its third cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon at the facility's Heart Institute.

Wiggans has extensive experience in vascular surgery and brings new technology, such as abdominal aortic aneurysm stent grafting, to St. Francis.

He will work with Dr. Billy Hammond and Dr. William Lafoe in the Endovascular Unit, located in a surgical suite at the medical center. He will work with Dr. William Logue and Dr. Edward Bender in heart procedures.

Wiggans is a fellow in the American College of Surgeons and is board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery. He is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine. He served a surgical internship at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and completed a general surgical residency at Methodist Hospital and a cardiothoracic surgical residency at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

Wiggans has completed fellowships in vascular surgery and cardiology at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, and a cardiothoracic fellowship at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Before coming to Cape Girardeau, Wiggans was senior cardiac surgeon at Cedar Valley Medical Center at Waterloo, Iowa, and director of the vascular lab at Allen Memorial Hospital. He previously worked as director of cardiac surgery at Cardiac Surgery Association li Waterloo, and was in a solo practice in Middleton, Ohio.