Background
Bret Mettler, M.D., is a pediatric cardiac surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland, caring for infants and children with a variety of heart conditions and congenital heart defects. He also serves as director of pediatric cardiac surgery and co-director of the Blalock–Taussig–Thomas Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Dr. Mettler came to Johns Hopkins from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he served as the director of pediatric cardiac transplantation and mechanical support since 2010. A native of South Dakota, where he was a magna cum laude undergraduate and medical student at the University of South Dakota, Dr. Mettler has had extensive and impressive surgical training at leading centers throughout the country. He completed his surgical residency training at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Michigan. He completed a research fellowship in cardiac tissue engineering at Boston Children’s Hospital, followed by a cardiothoracic surgical residency at the University of Virginia and a congenital cardiac surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Mettler has distinguished himself as a gifted and accomplished pediatric and congenital heart surgeon. He has also held numerous academic and leadership appointments in national associations including the Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association and the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association, of which he was president.