Wellstar Center for Cardiovascular Care

A native of Puerto Rico, Dr. Ada Mercado received her undergraduate degree from InterAmerican University and attended medical school at Pedro Henríquez Ureña. She completed her internal medicine residency in the Mayagüez Medical Center and her cardiovascular disease fellowship at Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. Dr. Mercado then completed an echocardiography fellowship at Tulane and Louisiana State University in New Orleans, LA. She also completed nuclear cardiology training at Emory University in Atlanta.

Dr. Mercado is board-certified in cardiovascular disease. She is a member of the American College of Cardiology and American Echcoardiography Society. Her special interests include general cardiology, transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiogram, and nuclear cardiology.

She joined Wellstar in January 2011 from the Atlanta Heart Center where she was a founding physician in 2002.

Amol S. Bapat, MD, FACC, was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he received his BA in Chemistry. He then proceeded to the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama, and after receiving his MD, pursued his Internal Medicine Residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He stayed at Baylor for his subspecialty training in Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology. While at Baylor, he was the recipient of a NIH National Research Award Training Grant and his research involved platelet and thrombosis physiology. He was the first physician to work with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation (LKCF) and its partnership with Saint Joseph's Hospital. He was awarded the Physician Laureate Award by the LKCF in 2006.

Dr. Barry D. Mangel is a board-certified, interventional cardiologist who was born in Philadelphia, PA. He studied at Boston University, where he completed a six-year Bachelor of Arts/Doctorate of Medicine program with honors. Dr. Mangel completed his internship and residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia in 1991. He was a cardiac fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, MA, where he received training in cardiac intervention.

Dr. Mangel entered private practice in 1994. He is currently on staff at Wellstar Cobb, Douglas, Kennestone and Paulding hospitals.

Dr. Mangel is a diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is board-certified in cardiovascular diseases and interventional cardiology. He is a member of the Medical Association of Georgia and the Cobb County Medical Society, and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Mangel serves as the Chief Cardiology Officer of the Wellstar Health System.

Dr. Mangel enjoys golf, tennis and scuba diving. He is married and has two children.

Dr. Mannino received his bachelor’s and master’s degree from Boston University. After medical school, he went on to complete his internship and residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey—New Jersey Medical School in Newark, N. J. During his final year of residency, he served as the chief resident in internal medicine. Dr. Mannino subsequently went on to complete fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at the Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers in New York City. During his medical training, Dr. Mannino was the recipient of numerous academic and teaching awards, including Intern of the Year, Resident of the Year, and Fellow of the Year. Dr. Mannino specializes in the non-surgical treatment of complex coronary artery disease, mechanical circulatory support, trans radial coronary interventions and robotic coronary interventions.

Dr. David Caras, FACC, an invasive cardiologist, is a native of Cobb County where he attended North Cobb High School. He has fulfilled his desire to practice medicine in his hometown community.

After receiving his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1988, he completed an internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Virginia. This was followed by a cardiology fellowship at Emory University, which was completed in 1994.

Dr. Caras, who is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology, joined Wellstar in June, 1994. He is level III trained in echocardiography and is especially interested in valvular heart disease, heart failure, and nuclear cardiology.

He is currently on staff at Wellstar Cobb, Douglas and Kennestone hospitals. Dr. Caras is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the Medical Association of Georgia, and the Cobb County Medical Society.

Dr. Caras enjoys sports, hiking, camping, and gardening. He is married and the father of two children.

Dr. Ahmed AlBadri is an interventional cardiologist with particular expertise in minimally invasive catheter-based therapies for the treatment of heart disease, including heart valve issues, heart vessels disease and holes in the heart. Over recent years, he has performed many of these procedures with both commercially and emerging research devices, having completed his interventional cardiology fellowship in one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. He also gained expertise in treating both chronic total occlusions (CTO) and most complex coronary lesions subsets during his training.

Dr. AlBadri’s research interest focuses on developing minimally invasive techniques to manage complex blockages in the heart vessels, heart valves such as transcatheter aortic and mitral valve repair and replacement. He received multiple grants to support his clinical research and has been co-investigator in many national and international studies, evaluating new treatment devices for heart conditions. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high impact journals and is regularly invited to speak at leading national and international conferences.
He appreciates physicians’ collaboration at Wellstar, where he works closely with other cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. This collaboration enables patients to benefit from the team’s collective experience and expertise.

“One of my most important duties, as a physician, is to listen to my patients’ concerns and guide them to understand their medical condition. We can work on fixing it together.”

“My goal is to provide my patients the energy and the ability to do their hobbies, while spending quality time with their loved ones without symptoms. I will do my best to make this possible for my patients.”

A native of New Orleans, Dr. Reitman is a board certified cardiologist who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis in 1991 and then earned a medical degree from Louisiana State University, New Orleans, in 1995. After completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at Tufts Affiliated Hospitals in Boston, MA, Dr. Reitman completed a Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship at Brown University, Providence, R.I. After an Interventional Fellowship at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed 2002, Dr Reitman started clinic practice in Marietta , GA.

Instrumental towards bringing interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery to Cobb County, Dr Reitman has been a perennial high volume operator, and has played an integral role in the development of Complex PCI, Cardiogenic Shock and Structural Heart Teams for Wellstar Health Systems. Teaching activities have involved live rotational atherectomy courses and complex interventional courses for interventional physicians from around the country.Starting as a three-physician interventional group at one hospital, Dr Reitman helped grow an interventional program that now touches a broad geography across the Atlanta metropolitan area, represented by over 18 interventional physicians in 9 separate cardiac cath labs. He has served as the system level cardiac catheterization lab director since 2009.

Dr Reitman has been involved in a number of coronary and structural heart trials in collaboration with other Wellstar physicians, including trials involving the Synergy and Onyx platforms, the Edwards Sapien and Evolut valves. Reitman has been involved with the Georgia Chapter of the American College of Cardiology since his arrival in Atlanta in 2002 .

Dr. Nydia Bladuell is board-certified in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology. She earned her medical degree in 1986 at the Universidad Central del Caribe in Puerto Rico where she graduated with honors at the top of her class. Dr. Bladuell completed her internal medicine internship and residency at Cabrini Medical Center in New York City, where she was Chief Resident her senior year followed by a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at Seton Hall University St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center where she was Chief Cardiology Fellow her senior year.

Her special interests include non-coronary intervention, nuclear cardiology, peripheral vascular disease, and women and heart disease.

Dr. Bladuell joined Wellstar Cardiovascular Medicine in April, 2009. She is currently on staff at Wellstar Kennestone and Cobb hospitals.

Dr. Bladuell is a member of the American College of Cardiology, the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Heart Association, the American Society of Internal Medicine, the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, and was selected as one of America’s Top Cardiologists for 2010.

Dr. Bladuell is married. Her hobbies include exercise and golf. She is fluent in Spanish.

Dr. McKee graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. He completed his internship, residency, Cardiovascular Disease fellowship and interventional cardiology fellowship at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Dr. McKee is board certified in cardiology and interventional cardiology. His special interests are in complex coronary interventions and revascularization of chronically occluded coronary arteries, exercise stress testing, echocardiography and platelet biology and function. Dr. McKee joined Cardiovascular Medicine in August 2007. He is currently on staff at Wellstar Cobb, Douglas, Kennestone and Paulding hospitals. During his leisure time, he enjoys boating, fishing, camping and spending time with his wife and children.

Dr. Lee, who is originally from Boston, is a non-invasive cardiologist with advanced training in congestive heart failure and non-invasive cardiac imaging. He is the medical director of the Wellstar Congestive Heart Failure program. Dr. Lee received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. He earned his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine, graduating summa cum laude. He completed his internship and residency at Barnes Hospital/ Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis, Mo., followed by a Cardiovascular Disease research fellowship at the same institution.

Dr. Lee was the internal medicine chief resident at Barnes Hospital in 1998 and was co-editor of The Washington Manual of Medical Therapeutics. He completed his Cardiovascular Disease clinical fellowship at Barnes Hospital/Washington University in 2000. Dr. Lee is board certified in Cardiovascular Disease and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha honor medical society. Dr. Lee joined Wellstar Medical Group, Cardiovascular Medicine in September 2006. He is currently on staff at Wellstar Cobb, Douglas and Kennestone hospitals.