Heart Transplant Program
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The Gift of Someday
Watch Rylee's Journey to a New Heart
Heart Transplant Program at Nationwide Children's
When your child needs a heart transplant, expertise and experience matter. Heart transplant, also called heart transplantation, is a highly successful therapy for treating heart failure. An individualized approach tailored to each patient helps to achieve best outcomes.
The Pediatric and Adult Advanced Cardiac Therapies (PAACT) team specializes in pediatric heart failure and heart transplants. The team’s vast experience includes providing the full range of cardiovascular support to infants, children and young adults.
About Heart Transplants at Nationwide Children's
Heart failure is life-threatening and life changing. Our goal for every heart transplant patient is to improve quality of life and reduce time on the transplant waiting list. Nationwide Children’s works with two national organizations to ensure the highest quality of patient care.
- The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) sets the quality standards that hospitals must meet to be part of the transplant process. UNOS also oversees the national organ-matching process between patients and donors.
- Nationwide Children’s is a member of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). This is the national transplant network responsible for all organ transplants in the United States. As a member, Nationwide Children’s meets all the requirements of a transplant center set by UNOS.
As a free-standing pediatric hospital, patients at Nationwide Children’s receive all the care they need before and after transplant. The Heart Transplant Program at Nationwide Children’s focuses on making the most of every patient’s health before, during and after a transplant. Our goal is to help every patient achieve their ideal outcome after their heart transplant.
Our team includes providers who are experts in different types of medical care. We call this multidisciplinary care. These specialists guide patients through every step of the transplant journey, from evaluation and diagnosis through surgery and long-term follow-up. The heart transplant team at Nationwide Children’s offers a unique approach tailored to meet each patient’s specific health care needs. Our heart doctors (cardiologists) have advanced training to provide treatment from the onset of illness, through the transplant and long after.
Our cardiologists specialize in:
- Heart transplants
- Using medicine and the medical management of pediatric heart failure
- Medical devices and mechanical support (including ventricular assist devices) that help the heart function better.
Quality Counts: See Our Surgical Outcomes
Our multidisciplinary team model at The Heart Center enables our team to constantly monitor the quality of care and patient safety pre- and post- surgery to assure the best possible outcomes. View our outcomes data
Transplant Capabilities
From testing and diagnosis to transplant surgery and cardiac rehabilitation, we can do it all at Nationwide Children’s.
Our capabilities include:
- Testing and advanced imaging to see how the heart is working (heart function)
- Medical therapy for heart failure
- Medical devices and advanced cardiac therapies, including pacemakers and ventricular assist devices (VADs)
- Checking (evaluating) each patient to make sure they qualify for a transplant
- Monitoring and support before and after transplant
- Heart transplants with a blood type that doesn’t match the patient’s (ABO incompatible heart transplantation)
- Cardiac catheterization procedures to test for heart or blood vessel issues
- Full medical and nutritional support
- On-site rehabilitation
- Pain management
Nationwide Children’s provides a full range of Heart Care services for patients awaiting or recovering from a transplant. During these times, advanced monitoring is essential. We take each patient’s unique needs into account. This includes adjusting medicines, optimizing nutrition, providing pain relief, and preparing children and their families for all the phases of transplant.
Meet Our Team
Deipanjan Nandi
Deipanjan "Deip" Nandi, MD, is a cardiologist and medical director with the Heart Transplant Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Patrick I. McConnell
Patrick I. McConnell, MD, is an attending surgeon in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and surgical director in the Heart Transplant Program at The Heart Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital.
Resources for Families
Keeping Family Connected
- ACTION – A group of child (pediatric) cardiology providers that focus on improving the health of children with heart problems that may need advanced therapies. ACTION has patient and parent-focused education materials on different heart conditions.
- Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation similarly focuses on helping provide information and resources for this population, as well as a place for parents and families to connect.
- Transplant Families focuses on helping provide resources for patients and families during their transplant journey.
- United Network for Organ Sharing – The mission of the United Network for Organ Sharing is to advance organ availability and transplantation to support patients through education, technology and policy development.
- Family Support Services – More resources for patients and their families.
Heart Transplant Process
What is a heart transplant? Why might my child need one? What is the process for a heart transplant?
A heart transplant replaces a damaged (poorly functioning) heart with a healthy heart from a human donor. A heart transplant may become necessary for a child when their heart cannot be surgically improved (for conditions like single ventricle or other congenital heart diseases) or when the heart muscle itself is not functioning normally (a condition known as cardiomyopathy).
The road to a pediatric heart transplant can be a long journey for some families. For others, the need may arise quickly and unexpectedly.
Every patient needs an exam to see if a heart transplant is the right treatment. Patients will visit our PAACT team to confirm their diagnosis and obtain any necessary imaging or blood work.
A New Heart — Shaun's Story
After spending more than 7 months in the cardiothoracic intensive care unit (CTICU) at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Shaun's parents finally got the news they thought might never come. Their baby was going to get his second chance at life. A new heart. An early morning phone call from their son's cardiac care team started the whirlwind day that would end with their baby's life forever changed.