Methods and devices for treating patients having cardiopulmonary disease such as cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular arrhythmias, pulmonary hypertension, or heart failure comprising a tracheal approach. The method includes ablating a deep cardiac plexus of a patient by advancing an treatment apparatus into a trachea of the patient, extending an ablative energy delivery element of the treatment apparatus through a wall of the trachea at a level of the trachea proximate a tracheal bifurcation, positioning the ablative energy delivery element at a target space between the trachea, an aorta and a pulmonary artery, and ablating, by the ablative energy delivery element, tissue within the target space to substantially disable the deep cardiac plexus.