Bert Janssen, a Dutchman diagnosed with cardiomyopathy at 17, has set a Guinness World Record as the longest-surviving heart transplant patient, living 39 years and 100 days after the surgery. His transplant, performed by Magdi Yacoub in 1984, has defied the average life expectancy for heart transplant patients of 16 years. Janssen aims to be an example for others and emphasizes the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and being active.
Duke Health has successfully performed the world's first partial heart transplant on a baby, a groundbreaking procedure that allows the transplanted heart valves and arteries to grow with the child. This innovative approach could significantly reduce the need for multiple, risky heart surgeries in children with heart valve defects, offering hope for improved long-term outcomes in pediatric heart care.
Doctors at Duke Health have successfully performed a partial heart transplant on a baby with a congenital heart defect, using living valves and arteries from a donor heart. The procedure, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that the transplanted parts can grow with the child, potentially reducing the need for future surgeries. This innovative approach also introduces the concept of a domino heart transplant, where one donor heart can save multiple lives by providing healthy valves to other patients. The success of this procedure, which has been performed 13 times worldwide, could significantly impact pediatric heart disease treatment and organ donation efficiency.
