The Johns Hopkins Medicine heart transplant team reached a significant program milestone in early February when it successfully completed five adult heart transplants in just seven days. This was the most heart transplants the team has ever performed in a single week and demonstrates the team's unwavering dedication and expertise in the field of organ transplantation.
This achievement was made possible through collaboration between heart transplant team members from many disciplines, including surgeons. We thank Ahmet Kilic, Chetan Pasrija, and Antonio Polanco for their valuable contributions, as well as the advanced heart failure/transplant cardiologists, the transplant nursing coordinators, and the cardiac and surgical intensive care teams who care for our patients pre- and post-transplant.
“We're here to provide the best care to the sickest patients with heart failure, and it truly takes a village to do this – from patient eligibility assessment to pre-transplant care, donor-recipient matching and compliance with post-transplant care,” says Kavita Sharma, associate professor of medicine and chief of heart failure and heart transplantation. “To perform so many successful heart transplants in the course of a week and have patients doing well too is truly rewarding – that's why we do what we do.”
“Our entire heart transplant team has been working overtime to reach as many heart failure patients as possible,” added Killick, chief of Heart Transplantation and associate professor of surgery. “This is a testament to the excellence of our patient care and the tremendous growth of our program with the recent additions of Dr. Paslija and Dr. Polanco.”
The life-saving series of procedures were performed in early February, coinciding perfectly with American Heart Month, a time to raise awareness about heart health. According to the American Heart Association, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide, with approximately 20 million deaths worldwide due to heart disease in 2021. More than 6 million adults in the United States have congestive heart failure.
