Heart-liver transplant performed at Children's Hospital

Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel | Karen Herzog

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin will officially announce Tuesday that it successfully performed the state's first pediatric heart-and-liver transplant, the same day the 15-year-old Chicago boy is scheduled to be released from the hospital.

The teen had the rare double transplant at the end of February as a result of complications from a complex congenital heart disease, according to hospital spokeswoman Gerry Steele.

The boy has been receiving care at Children's on and off since 2009, and initially was placed on an organ donation waiting list for a new heart. He developed liver insufficiency as a result of his heart disease and was put on the double transplant list in January.

Fewer than a dozen children nationwide have received heart-liver transplants, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

As of Jan. 31, nine pediatric heart-liver transplants had been performed nationwide, according to the network.

About 100 adult heart-liver transplants have been performed around the country, including one at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee in 2010.

The risk of the double transplant is much higher than that of either transplant alone.

The first heart-liver transplant occurred in 1992 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
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