Why choose us?
The Pediatric Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation Program at Children’s Memorial is the first and only pediatric heart transplant program in Illinois. Since performing Illinois’ first pediatric heart transplant in 1988, our team has performed more than 150 heart transplants. Our program boasts exceptional first-year survival rates of more than 95 percent and has impressive longer-term recovery, with most patients experiencing no limitations to normal childhood activity just one year after surgery. The multidisciplinary team of Cardiologists and Cardiovascular Surgeons offers highly specialized and innovative care for infants and children with a wide array of diagnoses, including complex congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathies, genetic etiologies, and cardiac arrhythmias.
Skilled and experienced leadership
The physician leaders of the Pediatric Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation Program combined have more than 40 years of heart transplantation experience.
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Carl L. Backer, MD, Surgical Director, has been involved in our heart transplantation program since its inception and was part of the team that performed the very first heart transplant at Children’s Memorial.
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Elfriede Pahl, MD, Medical Director, has been medical director of the program for more than 15 years and was involved in the formation of the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study (PHTS), a consortium comprised of 36 institutions dedicated to advances in treatment for children during listing for and following heart transplantation.
Innovative approaches and techniques
Children’s Memorial has a long history of helping patients with complex and life-threatening conditions, and our physicians and surgeons are known for developing innovative treatment and surgical techniques. Some of these are:
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In July 2008, Children’s Memorial became the first hospital in Illinois to use the Berlin Heart, a state-of-the-art ventricular assist device that takes over the pumping action of the heart when a patient is in a state of profound heart failure. It is the only such device in the world that is designed for use in the smallest of pediatric patients, including young infants.
Learn more about the Berlin Heart here.
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One of the few programs that offer re-transplantation for patients that develop transplant coronary artery disease.
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One of few programs that offer ABO incompatible transplantation to infants less than one year old requiring a heart transplant.
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Our surgeons can operate on patients who are on mechanical circulatory support, such as ECMO, the Thoratec VAD system, and the Berlin Heart.