Heart transplant
Find a transplant doctorThe process to get a heart transplant can seem overwhelming, but we're here to guide you throughout the process.
At Aurora Health Care, heart transplantation is close to our hearts. We completed the Midwest’s first heart transplant shortly after the world’s first heart transplant procedure was performed.
From surgery to recovery, we continue providing personalized care and expertise to help keep people healthier for years after their transplant. After all, living longer means more time for family, friends and everything else that makes life precious.
Evaluating your options
You may need a heart transplant if your medications and other treatments for congestive heart failure, severe coronary artery disease or a heart defect are no longer helping improve your condition.
During a heart transplant, a surgeon replaces your heart with a healthy heart from a donor. A new heart can help you live longer and with a better quality of life.
A group of cardiac and transplant experts will review your medical history, lifestyle and other needs to help determine if a heart transplant is the right option for you. We’ll discuss your goals, how transplantation may affect your life and if you have other options for treatment. You’ll undergo diagnostic tests to see if a transplant is likely to help you live longer and in better health.
Your doctor also might suggest you receive a ventricular assist devices (VAD). This mechanical device can be used short-term while you’re waiting for a heart transplant or long-term if you’re not eligible or prefer not to receive a transplant. Our number of VAD implantations combined with our number of heart transplants puts us among the world’s top programs for these two procedures.
Preparing for a heart transplant
As soon as the decision is made to move forward with a heart transplant, we’ll register you with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) waitlist. This national list matches transplant recipients with available organs based on health status, location and other guidelines.
While you’re waiting for a transplant, you’ll meet regularly with your transplant team so we can keep you as healthy as possible for the procedure.
We understand how difficult it can be waiting for a match – it could be a few days or a few years. That’s why we provide both emotional and medical support.
We’ll also help you prepare financially by discussing your financial options and obtaining pre-certification from your health plan.
Heart replacement surgery can take four to six hours. You’ll receive general anesthesia that will put you to sleep so you won’t feel any pain. We’ll also monitor your heart function, insert a catheter to empty your bladder and connect you to a breathing machine.
Your surgeon will make an incision along the breastbone. You’ll be connected to a heart-lung bypass machine, which allows your surgeon to stop your heart from beating and keeps your blood circulating while the heart is stopped.
The surgeon will remove your heart and place in the donor heart. Your surgeon may use electrical shock and possibly medications to restart your new heart. Then we’ll close your incision. We may insert temporary drainage tubes into your chest cavity to drain blood and fluid.
When you wake up, you’ll be ready to move to recovery in one of our specialized intensive care units. Most likely you’ll stay in the hospital for about two weeks.
Your transplant team will monitor you closely for signs of infection, rejection and medication side effects.
Your recovery may include cardiac rehabilitation. This medically supervised program offers extra support, education and coaching to help get you on the right track after surgery.
Once you go home, you’ll visit our transplant clinic regularly so we can make sure you’re recovering well. This may include blood tests, X-rays or other imaging, or biopsies during your visits. You’ll also receive ongoing education and support. If you live far away, we’ll work with your doctor to have blood and other lab work done nearby and sent to us.
As you recover, your doctors will fine-tune your immunosuppressive medications. These medications help prevent your body from rejecting your new heart. You’ll keep taking these medications for the rest of your life.
Within a few months, you should feel strong enough to go back to work and resume daily activities.
Placing your trust in our team
People from around eastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois choose our hospitals and clinics for our track record of safety and excellence. You can feel confident with our:
- National ranking: U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks our heart program among the best in the country. We’re dedicated to improving and transforming heart care.
- Top team: We perform an average of 25 to 30 heart transplants every year. To put that in perspective, more than 60% of transplant programs worldwide only perform 10 to 15 heart transplants yearly. Having more experience means our surgeons know what works best if you need a heart transplant.
- Exceptional results: Our transplant recipients have survival rates that beat the national average. That means our recipients, and their hearts, often recover better than statistics might predict they would. This pattern holds true one year, three years and five years after transplant. It’s also true for some people we treat who are particularly ill and can’t receive care elsewhere.
We transplants other organs, too, including kidney, liver and pancreas. Learn more about our transplant services.
Furthering clinical expertise through fellowship
For medical residency graduates, our heart failure and transplant fellowship program offers advanced training in preparing current and future physicians to help all people live well.
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