Illinois hospital launches pediatric heart transplant program

During a routine physical before joining her high school basketball team,15-year-old Nataly Paramó was advised to go straight to the emergency room at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, where doctors determined her heart was enlarged and weak.

The East Chicago, Ind., teen had no history of heart disease. Doctors in the pediatric intensive care unit worked for more than a month to repair her heart before deciding that the only option to save Nataly would be a heart transplant — which would make her the first pediatric heart transplant recipient at the hospital. Since her procedure, two other pediatric patients also have received heart transplants and all three are successfully recovering at home.

“We are proud to offer the life-sustaining gift of transplant to our patients facing heart failure,” said Dr. Luca Vricella, director of pediatric cardiac surgery. “Over the past several years, we have continued to treat more heart patients in need of donor hearts. This new program means that these children and their families will continue to receive care from the expert team they know and trust. Our pediatric heart transplant program is a triumph for some of the sickest children in the region, and a milestone for our hospital.”

Only about 500 pediatric heart transplants happen every year in the United States — that’s compared to around 4,000 performed on adults annually.

The pediatric heart transplant program is the culmination of years of planning and preparation through the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance (CCHA), a partnership between Advocate Children’s Hospital, UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital and Endeavor Health. The alliance performs more than 500 cardiac surgeries a year and has treated more than 15,000 heart patients.