Her Story
About Danae
Danae LaBar is a cardiovascular perfusionist with 18 years of experience going on 19. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Cardiovascular Perfusion Technology from Drexel University, where she graduated in 2008 and made the Dean's List with honors, as well as an Associate of Science from a community college after initially starting at Liberty University. She is American Board certified in cardiovascular perfusion and maintains licenses in Pennsylvania and New York. Over her career she has worked at approximately 20 different hospitals, serving as chief perfusionist or manager at three of them, and has expertise operating heart-lung machines, ECMO, and supporting heart, lung, and liver transplants along with other procedures such as TAVR and Watchman. She attributes her success to her father's emphasis on independence and a high school trigonometry teacher who motivated her to excel.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Danae
01What do you attribute your success to?
My success comes from my father who always told me to be independent and not concentrate on men, and especially from a high school trigonometry teacher who challenged me when I was getting C's by making me flip my hand over and over and asking if I wanted to flip burgers the rest of my life, pushing me to get my act together and motivating me to succeed.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's a lot of on-call and you are very limited with family time, but you can be very successful and the money is wonderful if you do it because you want to take care of people. It's not about the money - if you don't care about the patient you're worthless to them. It's a rewarding career with good patient outcomes.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges include limited hospitals that employ perfusionists so not many job options in an area, being on call 50% of the time, and workplace politics like backstabbing that can cost you your job even with surgeon support. Opportunities come from building relationships across many hospitals and moving into medical device sales for better work-life balance.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
God is number one in my life, then my husband and especially my puppy who is my angel. Professionally, patient care is number one - I look at every patient like they're my grandfather, mother, sister or father. Doing the right thing, not lying, and building relationships with people matter most.
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