Three heart transplants in two weeks at Riley

By: Courtney Finafrock, social media senior specialist, cfinafrock@iuhealth.org

Summer's end brought a very busy few weeks for the heart surgeons, cardiovascular intensive care unit teams and transplant teams at Riley Children's Health. The surgeons transplanted three donor hearts into patients within about two weeks; the average number of heart transplants the team performs annually is roughly six to 10.

"The work was overwhelming but the excitement around the unit and the emotions of the people involved, it was really heartwarming to see how everybody kind of pulled together and was excited for the patients and their families," Kelly Orr, a pediatric clinical heart transplant coordinator, described.

Dinah Teer's 13-year-old daughter, Makenzie, was one of the patients who received this lifesaving donation. Makenzie was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and underwent her first of three surgeries at merely seven days old.

"Her little heart was the size of an acorn," Dinah said.

The call came in late on August 21 and Makenzie and her family arrived at Riley on August 23 for the transplant surgery.

"Every time your phone rings, your heart sinks to the ground," Dinah said. "you just think, 'Oh God, this is it!'"

Jennifer Chaney received the long-awaited call early on August 29, just a few days after Dinah. At that time, Greyson, her son, had been waiting at Riley for 459 days. He was also born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

"Makenzie was at home," Orr explained. "She was the first one to come in and everyone said, 'oh, she's lucky she's at home and she's getting to come in but here we still have Greyson waiting,' and then just days later, he got his call."

Maegan Boehm, a pediatric clinical heart transplant coordinator who works alongside Orr, described a very busy period as the team worked to care for three transplant patients yet also a time of hope and gratitude. Dr Riad Lutfi, a pediatric intensive care physician, agrees.

"Seeing three recent transplants [go] really well and all those patients [are] quite complex and had multiple surgeries in the past, and the process will continue, and they will be closely monitored by the transplant team, that's the rewarding result is just testify of the great work that's going on here at Riley, and how we best serve our cardiac patients in the state of Indiana," Dr. Lutfi said.

For Chaney, looking at her son's monitors post-surgery was positively overwhelming.

"Sometimes it still doesn't feel real," Chaney said. "I'll look at his monitor that shows his stats and just seeing a healthy heart rate now is just an amazing feeling. I can't even describe it."

Today, both Makenzie and Greyson are discharged, allowing them to begin new chapters with a healthy, beating heart.

"[Makenzie]'s going to have so many more opportunities now," Dinah said. "She's just going to feel good. I really feel that she is going to be running circles around her peers instead of them running circles around her."