Pediatric Heart Transplant Program

About Pediatric Heart Transplant Program

Over the decades, the Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado has reached significant milestones and performed hundreds of lifesaving heart transplants. These achievements include a simultaneous heart and liver transplant as well as successful transplants for some of our smallest and most medically complex patients.

Excellent heart transplant survival rates

The most recent data shows that our Heart Transplant Program has a patient survival rate of 97.78% after one year, compared to a national average of 92.85%. And after three years, our patient survival rate is 96%, which is 9% higher than the national average of 87%.

Learn more about our heart transplant outcomes

Expert cardiac care while waiting

Our Heart Institute is one of the largest and most experienced pediatric heart programs in the region and provides unparalleled treatment and support for children while they wait for their heart transplant. Our pediatric cardiologists provide support through methods like ventricular assist devices and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which can help pump your child’s heart when it is too weak to pump on its own.

Multidisciplinary care

Our teams consist of experts from all different specialties throughout our hospital to achieve the best results.

Multi-listing option

We encourage multi-listing, which allows your child to be on waitlists at multiple transplant centers in different regions. Multi-listing creates more opportunities for kids to find a donor match for their transplant.

Why choose Children’s Colorado for your child’s heart transplant?

Our program is considered a large volume pediatric transplant center, which means we have seen more children for heart transplantation than many centers and gained valuable experience. Decades of experience and a focus on multidisciplinary care have allowed us to achieve excellent pediatric heart transplant outcomes.

A team of pediatric heart experts dedicated to your child

Kids are not small adults. They’re different in thousands of ways that affect their care. That’s why, along with the rigorous training to care for children with heart conditions, our heart transplant team has advanced expertise in pediatric medicine. Our highly specialized team includes:

• Transplant and congenital heart surgeons with specific training and experience in pediatric heart transplantation and congenital heart disease
• Pediatric cardiologists to optimize your child’s heart health while they await a transplant and long after
• Pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists to closely monitor your child’s comfort before, during and after surgery and procedures
• Pediatric cardiac intensivists to care for your child in our dedicated Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) during recovery
• Transplant pharmacists to answer questions and help your family with immunosuppressants and other medications, including dosage, timing and how to take each medication
• Transplant coordinators to assist your family with the transplant evaluation process, preparing for transplant and providing personalized follow-up care
• Pediatric cardiac nurses who are dedicated to the specialized care of kids with heart issues

Care for the whole child

Our goal is to give your child as healthy a life as possible and to help them thrive. Whenever possible, we allow kids awaiting transplant to stay at home with their families instead of the hospital. And if that isn’t possible, we have many family resources to help them feel comfortable while they stay nearby.

Rather than focusing only on their physical needs, our multidisciplinary team will tend to your child’s mental, emotional and spiritual needs, as well. Our transplant team also includes:

• Psychologists who provide long-term support for your child’s mental health, including finding ways to cope with illness and hospital visits
• Child life specialists who explain diagnoses and tests in an age-appropriate way and help kids cope while they’re in the hospital (often with the help of our medical dogs)
• Chaplains who provide spiritual care and emotional support during a hospital stay
• Social workers who support your family with financial and other psychosocial resources to help make care easier
• Registered dietitians who ensure your child receives the nutrition they need to grow and to educate your family on any specific dietary needs
• Physical, occupational, and speech therapists who help your child with the strength, skills and abilities they need for daily life

Faster recovery and return to everyday life

After a heart transplant, our goal is to help you and your child successfully transition home and return to daily activities as soon as it’s safe. With assistance from physical and occupational therapists, registered dietitians, cardiac pharmacists, psychologists and others, our multidisciplinary team will help your child gain the strength they need to thrive.

Once they’re home, experts from Cardiac Exercise Rehabilitation Program continue to provide support to help them gain strength and allow the child to return to sports and extracurricular activities.

Less invasive tests and procedures

Getting a new heart comes with lots of tests both before and after the transplant. By monitoring patients through non-invasive tests like echocardiography and doing fewer invasive procedures, we keep the procedures to a minimum and adjust the frequency to the needs of each child.

Pediatric heart transplant innovation and research

We’re dedicated to providing leading edge care for our patients today — and tomorrow. By participating in clinical trials and ongoing research we continuously advance our treatments to ensure the best possible outcomes. This means that our patients have access to the most advanced treatments and medication available.

What medical conditions do we treat with heart transplants?

There are a variety of indications for pediatric heart transplantation, including:

• Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
• Cardiomyopathy
• Congenital heart disease
• Kawasaki disease

For questions or to make an appointment, please contact our heart transplant team at 720-777-3218.