NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is celebrating the 25th anniversary of pediatric heart transplantation. In 1984, the Hospital's surgeons performed the world's first successful heart transplant, giving the gift of life to a 4-year-old boy. In the intervening quarter century, more than 350 children have received new hearts at the Hospital, which today has among the country's top three largest pediatric heart transplant programs.
On Sunday, Nov. 8, an expected 200 of these heart transplant recipients and their families will return to NewYork-Presbyterian to celebrate the milestone together with the transplant team that helped give them the "gift of life." (The event takes place at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, 3959 Broadway at 165th St., from 1 to 3 p.m.)
"We are very proud to mark 25 years of giving children with the most serious heart conditions the chance of a new start. Nothing is more touching than seeing a critically ill child get the chance to grow up," says Dr. Craig Smith, interim surgeon-in-chief and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and the Calvin F. Barber Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. "The continued success of our heart transplant program is a testament to the dedication of our multidisciplinary transplant team, including surgeons, cardiologists, nurse specialists, psychiatrists, social workers, child life specialists and physical therapists, who work in close concert to ensure the best possible outcomes."
While NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital treats some of the most complex cases, its survival rates surpass the national average, with children routinely returning to normal levels of activity and living into adulthood.
25 Years of Treatment Advances
"Since heart transplants first became available at our hospital a quarter century ago, a host of scientific advances -- including some pioneered here -- have made a major difference in improving the availability and effectiveness of heart transplantation, while extending survival and enhancing quality of life," says Dr. Jonathan Chen, surgical director of pediatric heart transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and the Komansky Center for Children's Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Chen is also an associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and adjunct associate professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
"These improvements, together with our multidisciplinary team approach, have helped us set the standard for pediatric heart transplantation, providing hearts to infants and children with complex congenital heart diseases, as well as high-risk patients who could not be transplanted elsewhere," adds Dr. Chen.
Beginning in the 1980s, NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital physician-scientists helped develop cardiac and respiratory support machines, including ventricular assist devices (VADs) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), that have dramatically extended the time that children with heart failure can survive until an organ becomes available. Today, the Hospital offers some VADs that can be implanted without open surgery.