Posted on

1st ‘domino’ transplant performed in babies saves 2 girls born with heart defects

Loading

When the Skaats family learned baby Mia needed a new heart they felt devastated. But Mia helped another family in domino heart transplant, a first in babies.

By Meghan Holohan

When Mia Skaats was only 10 days old, she began breathing rapidly, and her mom, Nicole Skaats, immediately knew something was wrong. Doctors eventually determined the newborn had cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart struggles to bump blood to the rest of the body, and she was in heart failure.

Mia needed a heart transplant, so when one became available, the Skaats family felt overjoyed their daughter, born in September 2022, would have a new chance at life. Check out the full story from NBC’s Today.

Loading
Posted on

Texas Children’s Receives 2023 Outstanding Heart Failure Care Team Award From Heart Failure Society of America

Loading

HOUSTON (JUNE 28, 2023) – The Texas Children’s Hospital Heart Failure Team has been named the 2023 Outstanding Heart Failure Care Team award winner by the Heart Failure Society of America. The team will be formally recognized at an award ceremony in Cleveland, OH later this year.

The Heart Failure Team is part of Texas Children’s Heart Center, recently ranked #1 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery for the seventh consecutive year. The team is uniquely suited to care for the most complex cardiac patients from infancy to adulthood with its world-class expertise in fetal and neonatal cardiology, congenital heart surgery, cardiac intensive care, and adult congenital heart disease. Read the full article from Texas Children’s Hospital.

Loading
Posted on

UPMC Bridging the Great Health Divide: Pediatric Heart Transplant

Loading

By WDTV News Staff

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – Pediatric heart transplant is a highly specialized form of health care performed at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Jasmin Adous tells us more in this month’s Bridging the Great Health Divide sponsored by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

The pediatric heart transplant program at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh was the second of it’s kind in the world. Surgeons have performed almost 400 pediatric and young adult heart transplants since 1982. Dr. Brian Feingold is the program’s Director of Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation. He says the program’s success it due to it’s people.
Read the full story from WDTV here.

Loading
Posted on

Pediatric heart transplant waiting times rose during pandemic, but mortality did not

Loading

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the waiting list times for pediatric heart transplants were longer than before the pandemic, but waiting list mortality did not change, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.

The researchers compared 610 children (mean age, 6.93 years) who received a heart transplant during the pandemic period, defined as March 2020 to June 2021, with 626 children (mean age, 6.74 years) who received a heart transplant during the pre-pandemic period, defined as November 2018 to February 2020. Read the full story in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Baby with rare condition gets heart transplant after waiting 218 days

Loading

A baby girl who has been living in a Chicago hospital with her parents for the last six months while waiting for a new heart finally received one last week.

Elodie Carmen Baker received a heart transplant at The Heart Center at Lurie Children’s Hospital on March 27. Elodie was about 7 weeks old when she was diagnosed with a rare heart condition in August 2021 called dilated cardiomyopathy. She had been on the waitlist for a new heart for over 200 days. Read the full story here.

Loading
Posted on

Baby gets heart transplant with a twist to fight rejection

Loading

Duke University doctors say a baby is thriving after a first-of-its-kind heart transplant — one that came with a bonus technique to try to help prevent rejection of the new organ.

The thymus plays a critical role in building the immune system. Doctors have wondered if implanting some thymus tissue that matched a donated organ might help it survive without the recipient needing toxic anti-rejection medicines. Read more.

Loading