Heart Transplant Program

The Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan offers outpatient clinics and daily inpatient rounds for management of patients awaiting transplants and those who have already received transplants. Heart transplant recipients require a lifetime of medical care. An Advanced Heart Failure Program was developed to evaluate and optimize medical therapy for those patients who may one day require transplant services.

When necessary, ventricular assist devices are used as a lifesaving treatment in patients that can’t wait for a donor heart to become available. Few surgeons in the United States have as much experience with pediatric-sized ventricular assist devices as the cardiovascular surgeons of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved use of the Berlin Heart, the first ventricular assist device made specifically for pediatric patients. Ventricular assist devices are used when a patient needs a heart transplant, but can’t wait for a donor heart to become available. The Berlin Heart can assist the failing heart until an appropriate donor heart can be found. Surgeons on the medical staff at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan are leaders in the use of this advanced technology and testified to the FDA about its life-saving benefits. Other mechanical support devices include Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), which functions as a temporary replacement for the child’s heart and lungs.