Transplant teams with Texas Children’s Hospital performed 112 solid organ transplants in 2017, the most in the history of Texas Children’s Transplant Services.
The liver and the kidney transplant programs were the busiest with 42 liver transplants and 32 kidney transplants completed last year. The heart program completed 28 transplants in 2017 and the lung program finished with 10, including one transplant in a patient under the age of one. There were only three such transplants in the United States last year.
“I’m very proud to be working with a team so dedicated to providing the best possible outcomes for our patients,” said Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services. “This milestone demonstrates that Texas Children’s continues to earn its reputation as one of the best pediatric transplant programs in the country, and is a testament to the skill and commitment of our multidisciplinary team.”
Since its inception, Texas Children’s Transplant Services has grown at a steady pace and is now one of the largest pediatric transplant programs in the nation. Along the way, the transplant teams have hit many milestones: performing 98 solid organ transplants in 2014, completing four kidney transplants over the course of 18 hours in 2016, and in 2017, performing 112 transplants, a record number for the team, boosting its total number of transplants to more than 1,500.
One of the recipients of last year’s 112 transplants was 4-month-old Carter Kraft. Born on June 10, 2017, at a hospital in his home state of Florida, Carter immediately cried loudly, but nurses noticed fluid on his lungs. After a nerve-racking few weeks waiting for answers as to what was causing breathing issues for their son, Carter’s parents, Jennifer and Matt Kraft, were told their son had a rare genetic disorder called ABCA3 Surfactant Protein Deficiency, which prevented his lungs from being able to absorb oxygen. The only treatment for the disorder is a double lung transplant.
Carter was transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital on August 16 because our transplant teams have the depth of skill and unique qualifications to treat patients from newborns to young adults in need of a heart, kidney, liver and lung transplant. In particular, the hospital’s Lung Transplant Program offers a median wait time of less than four months and is one of only two institutions performing 10 or more pediatric lung transplants each year.
Carter spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) before undergoing a procedure to repair a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) of his heart. Then, on October 27, Carter underwent the double lung transplant he needed with Dr. Jeff Heinle, interim chief of congenital heart surgery at Texas Children’s.
Now, 12 weeks post-transplant, Carter is doing well and his family is looking forward to returning home to Florida soon.
“We are so pleased that we were able to help Carter and that he is doing so well,” Heinle said. “We are fortunate to work at Texas Children’s Hospital where we have the resources to provide this kind of specialized care to complex, challenging patients.”
For more information on Texas Children’s Transplant Services, click here. To watch a story on KHOU-TV Channel 11’s about Texas Children’s Transplant Services milestone, click here.
