Your family will meet with a transplant doctor and coordinator, who will guide you through the whole heart transplant process. As part of this, our team of experts will consider other options to transplant and will help you decide what is best for your child and your family. During this process, you will learn more details about the risks and benefits of undergoing a heart transplant.
Before
It’s important we make sure a heart transplant is a good fit for your child. As part of your visit, you and your child will undergo a formal heart transplant evaluation.
During the evaluation, you will meet with experts of our multi-disciplinary team. Your child will need additional testing — including blood and urine tests, echocardiogram, electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), CT and/or MRI scans, and if necessary, heart catheterization. In addition, our social worker, psychologist and child life specialist will help make sure your entire family is prepared.
Once we have determined if a heart transplant is a good fit for your child, they will be placed on a waiting list with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) for a donor heart. Your child is prioritized based on medical need. In some cases, your child may require mechanical circulatory support (MCS) to help your child be healthier and function more normally while waiting for a heart.
While waiting for a heart transplant, your transplant team will see you and your child frequently, either for routine office visits or while admitted at our hospital.
During
Once a heart is available, things move very quickly. You will be notified right away by the transplant team that a good heart match has been accepted. If your child is not already at Children’s Wisconsin, you will need to arrive as soon as possible to the hospital in order to get ready for surgery.
The heart transplant surgery takes between six to ten hours. Your child will be placed on a machine that does the work of their heart and lungs. Your child's sick heart will be removed and the donor heart will be implanted. Once everything is connected, we remove your child from the heart-lung machine. Our team will keep you updated on your child’s progress throughout the procedure.
After
After surgery, your child will be moved to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Our team carefully monitors them, watching for signs of changes in heart function, rejection and infection. During this time, we also help manage any medications your child needs. The time it takes your child to recovery from surgery varies, but during their recovery, they will remain admitted to the hospital.
When they are ready, your child will be able to leave the hospital and have continued close follow up with the transplant team in our clinic.
Before your child is discharged, we’ll provide you with a detailed follow-up care plan for the months and years ahead. Frequent visits, testing and contact with the transplant team are essential to keeping your child healthy after a heart transplant. Our team is available 24/7 to answer your questions.
