Oklahoma Children’s Hospital will now perform pediatric heart transplants
By Kilee Thomas
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OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Children in Oklahoma can now receive heart transplants in their home state.
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital will now perform pediatric heart transplants, making it the first and only hospital in the state to do so. This comes after an Oklahoma child was approved and added to the national transplant list to receive a new heart.
Children in Oklahoma can now receive heart transplants in their home state.
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital will now perform pediatric heart transplants, making it the first and only hospital in the state to do so. This comes after an Oklahoma child was approved and added to the national transplant list to receive a new heart.
The first child at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital has been placed on the organ transplant list. Burkhart said the patient is listed high enough that they are hopeful a heart will come in the next few months.
After the first transplant, Oklahoma Children’s Hospital said they would be able to offer the program for more children.
“It wasn’t that we could jump in 10 years ago and do transplant. We had to get all of this infrastructure from nursing to OR personnel to physicians. That gives us the ability to take care of someone who is quite sick and needs a heart transplant,” Burkhart said.
The hospital anticipates performing eight to 10 heart transplants a year, with more scheduled as the program grows.
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