Matthew a healthy three year old toddler, from Takapuna, New Zealand has already had two open heart surgeries. If he had been born two years earlier the doctors could not have saved him.
An eight hour procedure called Norwood/Rastelli was performed on Matthew when he was five days old. In the procedure his right ventricle and aorta were patched by using human and animal tissue (cow and pig).
Matthew’s mother said "I was so scared. I’ll never forget hearing my husband on the other end of the phone telling me the news.
"Basically his heart was a mess. It was like a jigsaw …read more

The research on lung transplants being developed in Toronto CA. is one of the most exciting developments in transplant research in years.
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, and his colleagues at the Toronto General Hospital created a bubble to place damaged lungs in. The lungs can keep breathing for 12 to 18 hours at normal body temperature.
The older method of working on the lungs, while they were still in the body had to be completed within 6 hours, or the lungs would die.
The new method also gives hope for patients waiting for transplants such as livers, kidneys or heart.
Currently, only 10 …read more

Here is a feel good story…
A young Michigan teen, 17 year old Danielle, was given the gift of life today. At a little past 2 AM, the young lady– who had been diagnosed with CHF earlier this Spring received her second heart transplant. Her first was when she was 5 weeks old.
Good luck to this Port Huron teen and her family! Thoughts and prayers are with you.

This is a really interesting study. It has been thought that the heart should be stopped for 5 minutes following a cardiac death in an infant heart before harvesting for organ donation- that has been since 1997. It is now being said that only one minute is needed, as the heart is irreversibly dead after 6o seconds.
Shortening the interval reduces the time that transplantable organs are deprived of oxygen, which likely increases the success of transplants. It may also help to increase the number of available organs for donations. This is important because as many as one in four babies …read more

Heart transplants save the lives of more than 2,100 Americans every year. But many more patients are still waiting for a new heart to become available, and hundreds will die without ever getting a second chance at life.
With that being said researchers are asking the question, “will heart transplants become a thing of the past?” Will technology become the answer? Yes and perhaps were the answers!
The HeartMate II is an example of this technology. It is the size of a D-cell battery, with a tube that pokes through the skin and connects to a battery pack. It aids …read more

How cool is this? A minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement procedure has been developed and tested for patients with congenital heart disease. And guess what? It doesn’t involve open heart surgery.
Many times patients that are born with such congenital heart diseases as right ventricular outflow tract and they face many procedures and surgeries, which usually consist of opening the chest to replace the damaged valves.
“We were able to successfully implant the Edwards SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve percutaneously in the first three patients treated in this trial. All of the patients are recovering and are expected to go home today,” said …read more

Oh boy, I get so darn excited when I read anything about the progress of stem cell research. Yes, you know which side of the debate I sit on. Scientists are getting closer and closer to the use of stem cells to help rejuvenate damaged cardiac tissue!
The two major hurdles that needed to be tackled are becoming a reality…
…via Science Daily- solve two problems in the development of a stem cell heart patch. The first is undesirable side effects, such as arrhythmia, that can result from immature and undeveloped cardiomyocytes being introduced to the heart. The second is the need …read more

The first heart transplant was 40 years ago and the patient lasted a little over 2 weeks. That may not have been lengthy but it sure was ground breaking. Now 4 decades later we are performing less and less heart transplants. Why?
Could it be the ability to keep very sick hearts alive and working effectively for longer amounts of time then previous? Quite possibly! Could it be that even though there are more registered organ donors, our organs aren’t exactly what they used to be? High cholesterol, smoking, alcohol abuse and older donors… a different type of death.
What do you …read more

Man oh man! I feel like there is always some sort of research pointing to some other type of research that has already been accepted and totally disagrees with what we have been doing for years. Do you follow? hahah.
It seems that now researchers are suggesting that transfusions among bypass surgery patients are not as favorable as we thought…
The research found patients who received a red blood cell transfusion experienced a three-fold increase in complications arising from lack of oxygen to key organs — such as in a heart attack or stroke. This is a finding at odds with the …read more

Just a follow up to my last post about congenital heart disease… While searching through for images that portray congenital heart defects, I can across a few websites. I have to admit, after 2 minutes I was in tears. Not just boo hoo tears, but full out sobbing. Why was the only word that passed through my mind.
I know the why and how at the genetic level, but it just isn’t fair for the children, parents or families and friends that are affected by congenital heart disease. I also know that we have come along way with research, procedures and …read more