HEART TRANSPLANTATION
United Network for Organ Sharing ( UNOS ) reported that approximately 3,200 heart transplants were performed in 2017 . In calendar year 2017 , Baylor University Medical Center performed 61 heart transplants , one of the top 10 heart transplant programs in the nation . Members of the hospital transplantation team evaluate patients throughout Texas by traveling to outreach clinics in Longview , Abilene , Amarillo , Midland-Odessa , and Lubbock .
INNOVATION IN RESEARCH
Baylor University Medical Center ’ s heart transplantation team continues to notice the medical community ’ s increasing interest in the program ’ s growth and variety of cases as well as a robust research initiative . Unique to our facility are the Simmons Transplant All-Organ Research System ( STARS ) database – a central repository that houses research-focused information on the hospital ’ s transplant patients – and the transplant biorepository – a tissue bank of serum and cells from previous transplant patients that have been collected and stored since the program ’ s inception in 1984 . These exclusive resources have allowed Baylor Dallas to pioneer transplantation research from within the facility walls .
Over six million people a year live with heart failure and only about 2,200 receive a new heart each year . Since 2014 , the Heart-to-Heart program at Baylor Dallas has been reminding patients of their great fortune by inviting them back to see and hold their former heart , while educating them on how to care for their new one .
Hosted by William C . Roberts , MD , pathologist and executive director of the Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Institute , editor-inchief of The American Journal of Cardiology and Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings and dean of the A . Webb Roberts Center for Continuing Medical Education , the program has reunited more than 100 transplant patients with their former heart while serving as a follow-up
Photo by Danny Fulgencio
and educational platform on ways to care for their new one . Dr . Roberts explains , “ Many of these patients have been sick for 10 years with breathlessness and heart failure , so they go from this constant fear to , all of a sudden , they ’ ve got new life .”
Dr . Roberts believes this follow-up will encourage patients to lead a healthier lifestyle after they see the damage to their old heart . “ When I show patients their heart , I ’ m hopeful that they will realize how fortunate they are to be able to start again with a normal heart .”
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